The chip-packaging and testing industry should see higher growth than the foundry industry next year, thanks to growing demand in emerging markets and for communication products, Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) said yesterday.
“The testing and packaging industry will fare slightly better than the foundry industry next year,” chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told investors.
Siliconware Precision is the world’s second-largest chip packager and tester after Kaohsiung-based Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體).
PCs and mobile phones have become necessities for people, and with PC shipments expected to grow next year and smartphones driving cellphone sales as a whole, the semiconductor industry will benefit from the recovering demand, Lin said.
As the US market shows signs of recovery and emerging markets see growing demand for tech products, these will help contribute to next year’s rosy outlook, he said.
To cope with the rising demand from clients, Siliconware Precision is expected to put in capital expenditure of NT$10 billion (US$300 million) next year in expanding facilities and purchasing new equipment. The figure is up from this year’s estimated NT$5.3 billion, which was raised from an earlier estimate of NT$4 billion.
The company yesterday posted a 19.6 percent year-on-year drop in third-quarter net profit to NT$2.56 billion, or NT$0.82 a share, from NT$3.19 billion, or NT$1.02 per share.
Sales in the third quarter were down 3 percent to NT$16.7 billion.
In the third quarter, net revenues from chip packaging accounted for 91 percent of total revenues at NT$15.3 billion, while testing operations took up 9 percent at NT$1.4 billion.
Gross margin fell slightly to 23.2 percent from 23.4 percent a year ago, as prices of gold — used in raw materials for chip packaging — soared and the New Taiwan dollar appreciated against the greenback, Lin said.
Business prospects in the fourth quarter are projected to be as strong as the third. Although clients are cautious about piling up stock in order not to repeat the troubles of late last year, the recovery is still on the way, he said.
The utilization rate in the fourth quarter is expected to maintain the same momentum as the third, which picked up from the first two quarters, Lin said.
Utilization rates for wire-bonding packaging, flip-chip ball-grid-array packaging and integrated-circuit logic testing equipment were 100 percent, 95 percent and 85 percent respectively in the third quarter.
Siliconware Precision shares fell 3.8 percent to NT$44.6 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ahead of the investors conference.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS