Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s second-largest chip packaging and testing company, swung to net profits of NT$4.3 billion (US$130.4 million) in the fourth quarter from net losses of NT$1.03 billion a year earlier, amid a recovering technology landscape.
The company, which tracks Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) in the sector, said yesterday it planned to triple capital expenditure to boost capacity this year.
SPIL’s earnings per share were NT$1.37 in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to losses per share of NT$0.33 in the fourth quarter of 2008.
The rise in earnings was also attributed to the merger of Phoenix Precision Technology Corp (全懋精密科技) — in which SPIL is the major stakeholder — by Unimicron Corp (欣興電子). SPIL booked NT$1.95 billion in profits from the merger, chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told an investors’ conference yesterday in Taipei.
SPIL’s revenues in the three months ended on Dec. 31 rose 35.1 percent to NT$16.8 billion from NT$12.5 billion a year earlier. Gross margins also edged up to 20.1 percent from 19.1 percent.
To cope with rising demand, Lin said the company would triple this year’s capital expenditure to NT$14.3 billion from NT$4.74 billion last year, in anticipation of its plans to expand facilities in Suzhou, China, and Taiwan, as well as buy new equipment.
This year’s capex is adjusted upward from NT$10 billion announced in October.
“The chip packaging and testing industry will grow by double digits this year,” Lin said, brushing off an analyst’s concern that the company was too aggressive in capacity expansion.
Taiwan is competitive in the semiconductor industry and the market is looking good over the next five years because of demand from emerging markets as well as expected warmer trade ties with China, he said.
To compete with ASE, SPIL said it would follow suit by increasing copper wire bonders to 2,150 units by the fourth quarter, up from 600 units in the first quarter.
First-quarter utilization rates for wire-bonding packaging, flip-chip ball-grid-array packaging and IC logic testing equipment would drop by 5 percentage points each from the last three months, to 95 percent, 90 percent and 80 percent respectively.
Shares of SPIL were up 4.25 percent to close at NT$41.7 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, while those of ASE rose limit-up to NT$25.7 after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “hold” from “sell” in a note on Tuesday.
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