Memorychip tester and packager Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) yesterday reported its strongest quarterly earnings in seven years, aided by growth in flash memory chips and a favorable foreign exchange rate.
Net profit last quarter rose 30 percent to NT$1.68 billion (US$54.69 million) from NT$1.29 billion in the first quarter, the company’s financial statements showed. Earnings per share increased to NT$2.16 from NT$1.66.
Gross margin improved to 21.2 percent last quarter from 20.9 percent in the previous quarter, company data showed.
That re-enforced Powertech’s confidence about revenue growth for the full year, despite potential impact from the patent infringement lawsuits between its major customer, Micron Technology Inc, and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) in China.
A ruling by the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in favor of UMC early this month weighed on Powertech’s share price.
“Based on our understanding, the lawsuits only affect Micron’s production of SSD [solid-state drives] and memory modules. Its wafer business remains intact,” Powertech chairman D.K. Tsai (蔡篤恭) told an investors’ conference.
“We do not see any substantial impact on our company,” Tsai said.
Micron contributed 25 percent to Powertech’s overall revenue, the company said.
Powertech said it remains optimistic about its prospects this year.
“We have weathered through the most difficult period in the first and second quarters. We have overcome the ordeal. Our businesses were strong, extending the momentum from the fourth quarter last year,” Powertech general manager Hung Chia-yu told investors.
“As the industry is entering its peak season, we expect that revenue in the second half will be much higher than in the first half, in line with historical trends,” Hung said.
For the full year, the company’s revenue growth should outpace that of the local semiconductor industry, which is forecast to expand by 7.1 percent, according to the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (產業經濟與趨勢研究中心), Hung said.
“Mobile phones continue to be an important growth driver [this year] in terms of end demand, although the growth rate is decelerating. We still see growth in high-end smartphones equipped with new features like artificial intelligence,” Hung said.
Powertech expects the NAND flash memory chip growth momentum to magnify this quarter, as most mobile phone vendors are set to launch new models later this year, which should fuel demand for data storage eMMC or eMCP modules that contain flash memory chips.
“NAND flash chips will enjoy the strongest growth in the third quarter, faster than DRAM and logic [chips]. It will be a main growth engine,” Hung said.
NAND flash memory chips made up 40 percent of its revenue last quarter.
The company also sees strong demand and growth from the DRAM segment, especially those used in consumer electronics, such as TVs, set-top boxes and vehicles.
Powertech’s first-half revenue increased 24.6 percent year-on-year to NT$33.12 billion, thanks to robust customer demand and the acquisitions of two Japanese subsidiaries.
Net profit in the first two quarters expanded 14.3 percent year-on-year to NT$2.97 billion, compared with NT$2.58 billion in the same period last year. Earnings per share climbed to 3.82 from NT$3.31.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”