ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said that revenue would return to growth this year, bolstered by restocking demand.
The company expects annual revenue growth to rise by as much as 10 percent, in line with the global semiconductor industry’s recovery.
ASE said it is on track to double its leading-edge packaging revenue to about US$250 million this year.
Photo: CNA
The growth momentum would last through the next few years, it added.
ASE has also been working with a leading foundry supplier on advanced “chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS)” packaging technology, it said.
“2024 will be a year of recovery. We will be coming out of inventory adjustment in the first half. We expect growth to accelerate in the second half,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told investors during a videoconference.
This year, the company’s assembly and test manufacturing (ATM) revenue would grow “at a similar rate with the [global] logic semiconductor market,” Wu said.
SEMI and analysts expect the global semiconductor market to grow between 6 and 10 percent annually, he said.
Robust smartphone sales in China over the past few months indicate that the semiconductor industry is either at the beginning of an upcycle, or the tail end of a prolonged inventory adjustment, Wu said. A majority of ASE’s customers are to return to their “recovery path” from the third quarter, after driving down inventory to healthy levels, he said.
ASE plans to expand equipment capital expenditure by 40 to 50 percent this year from a year earlier, with a major portion of the funds allocated for leading-edge packaging capacity expansion, chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) said.
Gross margin this year is expected to rebound to the company’s target of between 25 percent and 30 percent, Tung said.
ASE expects ATM revenue this quarter to be flat at NT$73.32 billion (US$2.34 billion) compared with a year earlier, but that would still be better than the typically slow first quarter in the past, when ATM revenue usually dipped between 10 and 15 percent, it said.
Gross margin for the ATM business this quarter would also be similar to a year earlier at about 20.1 percent, it said.
Revenue from its electronics manufacturing services this quarter would be flat at NT$57.73 billion, it added.
ASE’s net profit last quarter grew 7 percent to NT$9.39 billion from NT$8.78 billion the previous quarter.
However, on an annual basis, it slumped 40 percent from NT$15.73 billion.
For the whole of last year, net profit almost halved to NT$31.73 billion from NT$62.09 billion.
Earnings per share dropped to NT$7.39 from NT$14.53, while gross margin slid from 20.1 percent to 15.8 percent.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS