Multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) supplier Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday said it plans to trim its capacity expansion targets for this year after sagging demand drove last month’s revenue down to its weakest level in nine months.
Last month, revenue dropped 15.7 percent to NT$4.53 billion (US$147.07 million) from NT$5.38 billion in November last year, the lowest since March last year.
Yageo said it attributed sluggish demand for passive components used in most consumer electronics to a short-term correction.
Shipments to its customers in America and Europe fell during the holiday season, Yageo said in a company statement, adding that its Chinese customers remained conservative about their business outlook due to the US-China trade dispute.
In the quarter ending Dec. 31, revenue sank 47.06 percent to NT$16.23 billion from NT$30.66 billion a quarter earlier, while on an annual basis, revenue soared 68.2 percent, it said.
Since September, Yageo has been reducing its supply to distributors to help them alleviate inventory pressure, Yago said, adding that it would take one more quarter for its distributors to reduce their inventories to a normal level.
“There will not be strong sequential growth in the first quarter as the company has experienced in past years,” a company executive said in a telephone interview.
“The first quarter will be a flat period, compared with the fourth quarter [of last year],” they said.
To cope with short-term disparity in supply and demand, Yageo plans to push back its scheduled capacity expansion a bit to 55 billion units this year and 65 billion next year, the executive said.
Originally, Yageo planned to boost annual MLCC capacity to 60 billion units this year and 70 billion next year, from 50 billion last year.
“We still see growth for high-end and high-capacity MLCCs for vehicles and industrial devices in the long run,” the official said, adding that Yageo expects to see good demand for passive components used in 5G base stations this year.
Morgan Stanley last month said that sliding demand and excessive inventories would likely cause the average selling price of Yageo’s MLCCs to see a 15 percent quarterly decline this quarter, while prices should drop another 10 percent in next quarter.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
RSS