Passive components maker Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技) yesterday reported that pretax profit last quarter dropped 30.43 percent to NT$1.44 billion (US$47.37 million), from NT$2.07 billion the previous quarter, due to lower prices.
An outbreak of COVID-19 in China is expected to affect the global economy in the first two quarters of this year, which would create short-term headwinds for the company, according to a presentation Walsin prepared for an investors’ conference yesterday, which was not open to the media.
The company did not elaborate on the short-term effects of the epidemic.
In the presentation, Walsin said that 5G-enabled networking devices and automotive applications would continue to drive demand for passive components.
The company reported revenue of NT$29.94 billion for last year, with China, the biggest market, accounting for more than 70 percent of its total revenue.
Operating profit last quarter dropped 18.12 percent quarter-on-quarter from NT$1.49 billion to NT$1.22 billion, with operating margin dipping from 20.55 percent to 18.74 percent — the smallest quarterly contraction in about two years, as falling inventory and supply constraints helped buoy prices.
For last year as a whole, Walsin’s pretax profit plummeted about 65 percent to NT$8.97 billion, compared with NT$25.61 billion in 2018. Pretax earnings per share fell to NT$18.46, from a record high of NT$52.96.
Separately yesterday, Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s third-largest supplier of chip resistors, said that a shortage of passive components has worsened, as few employees returned to work after the Lunar New Year holiday due to COVID-19-induced lockdowns in China.
Yageo said it hopes that the situation will improve at the end of this month, when more employees return to work.
The company originally aimed to lift factory utilization to about 70 percent next quarter, but said that it now faces difficulty boosting it due to the severe labor shortage, and clients are seeing inventories running at less-than-normal levels.
“The company’s top priority is to satisfy customer demand,” a Yageo official said by telephone.
Yageo declined to comment on local media reports about price hikes of between 70 percent and 80 percent for its chip resistors, starting next month.
The firm earlier this month raised prices by 50 percent for multilayer ceramic capacitors, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing industry sources.
Yageo is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting today to sign off on a plan to issue 80 million new common shares in the form of global depository receipts.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
The US has cleared about 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia Corp’s second-most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the H200, but not a single delivery has been made so far, three people familiar with the matter said, leaving a major technology deal in limbo as chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) seeks a breakthrough in China this week. Huang, who was not initially listed in a White House delegation to Beijing, joined the trip after an invitation from US President Donald Trump, a source said. Trump picked him up in Alaska en route to a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS