Memorychip makers Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) saw revenue climb for the first time in several months as a full number of working days supported a rebound among local chipmakers.
Macronix, the world’s largest NOR flash memorychip maker, said that revenue rose 8.8 percent to NT$1.96 billion (US$63.54 million) last month from NT$1.81 billion in February, ending four months of declines.
On an annual basis, revenue tumbled 38.6 percent from NT$3.25 billion, the company said.
In the first quarter, aggregate revenue totaled NT$6.03 billion, plunging 33.5 percent from NT$9.06 billion a year earlier, as prices fell amid sagging demand. On a quarterly basis, revenue sank 33 percent.
In January, Macronix said that it expected that a downward trend in chip prices would extend into the first half of this year, as US-China trade tensions continued to concern customers.
Its outlook is a bit rosier for the second half of the year, as the US and China have made some progress in trade negotiations, the company said, adding that it believes that a deal is starting to take shape, which would eventually lead to the cancelation of punishing tariffs and the removal of trade barriers.
With the end of the US-China trade spat, “almost all businesses would return to normal as the uncertainty vanishes,” although the strength of a subsequent recovery remains to be seen, company chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求) said.
Winbond Electronics Corp, the world’s No. 3 NOR flash memorychip supplier, saw revenue rebound 13.72 percent to NT$3.73 billion last month, from NT$3.28 billion in February.
The increase brought the company’s first-quarter revenue to NT10.89 billion, down 10.44 percent year-on-year from NT$12.16 billion. Quarterly revenue shrank 8.26 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.
In January, Winbond said that its outlook remained conservative regarding demand from the smartphone and cryptocurrency segments.
The company expected demand to primarily come from the consumer electronics segment, it said, adding that the segment was one of its two biggest revenue sources, contributing 29 percent last year.
Demand would likely rebound in the second half of the year after customers depleted their inventories, which many stockpiled in efforts to handle production lines moving out of China and to avoid heavy tariffs levied by the US on Chinese imports, it said.
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) also saw revenue rebound 9.54 percent month-on-month to NT$3.72 billion last month, from NT$3.39 billion in February.
The company’s revenue in the first quarter totaled NT$11.37 billion, tumbling 39.5 percent year-on-year from NT$18.8 billion.
Memorychip tester and packager Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) yesterday posted a 13.3 percent growth in revenue month-on-month to NT$4.92 billion, from NT$4.34 billion in February.
Powertech said that revenue in the first quarter dropped 9.29 percent year-on-year to NT$14.43 billion, from NT$15.91 billion a year earlier.
A recovery might arrive in the second half of the year, the company told investors in January.
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