Win Semiconductors Corp (Win Semi, 穩懋半導體) holds a strong outlook for the current quarter, thanks to resilient demand from smartphone and infrastructure segments.
The world’s largest compound semiconductor foundry, which is 4.72 percent owned by Avago Technologies Ltd, last week said it expects revenue to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage to a record high, compared with the NT$6.4 billion (US$209.2 million at the current exchange rate) that it made last quarter.
That would boost revenue this year by 20 percent from last year’s NT$17.31 billion, the company forecast on Friday.
“Almost all smartphone customers are showing increased demand for our products in the fourth quarter, compared with the third quarter,” Win Semi president Steven Chen (陳舜平) told investors in a teleconference.
This is a rare case for the company, which tends to see revenue peak in the third quarter of a year, Chen said.
The unusual boon comes amid strong demand for power amplifier (PA), Wi-Fi and vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) chips, he said.
VCSEL chips are used in 3D face recognition applications, acting as a lighting source that provides even facial illumination with infrared light.
“That means our customers are outselling smartphones more than people had thought,” Chen said.
Gross margin for this quarter is to remain at a similar level to last quarter’s 42.1 percent, which was a historical high, he said.
Win Semi is bullish about the business outlook for next year, citing the growing demand from 5G smartphones, applications and network deployment.
“We are optimistic about next year’s outlook,” Chen said.
“There will be more 5G smartphones and applications after the [commercial] launch this year [of 5G],” he said.
“We strongly believe 5G will be a growth engine for the company in the next few years,” he added.
Win Semi, which ships PA chips for 5G-enabled phones and other products, said 5G-related chips have contributed more than 10 percent of its total revenue.
To satisfy customers’ demand for 5G chips, the company plans to expand its monthly capacity from 36,000 wafers to 41,000 wafers next year, it said.
Robust demand for smartphone-related chips — including VCSEL and Wi-Fi chips — helped boost its net profit last quarter to a historical high of NT$1.64 billion, or earnings of NT$3.9 per share, it said.
That compares with net profit of NT$384 million a year earlier and NT$1.19 billion in the previous quarter.
Gross margin improved significantly to 42.1 percent, from 34 percent in the second quarter, due to the high utilization rate of 95 percent, up from 80 percent in the previous quarter, the company said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last