Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s No. 2 chip packager, yesterday said it was suspending the purchase of new, advanced equipment as customer demand has started to slacken recently.
Earlier this year, a strong recovery in electronics as the global economy began to improve prompted most local chip companies, including SPIL, to hike proposed capital spending for this year to record highs as they struggled to meet customer demand.
“We have put on hold the purchase of copper wire bonders,” company spokesman Byron Chiang (江百宏) said on the phone. “Orders are not coming along as strong as we originally thought.”
About NT$1.6 billion (US$50.24 million) of orders for equipment makers would be affected, Chiang said.
The figure accounts for about 7.6 percent of the overall NT$21 billion spending budgeted by the chip testing and packaging service provider this year on the expectations that emerging markets would greatly drive demand.
Last year, the Taichung-based company only spent NT$4.74 billion on new facilities and equipment.
SPIL has not set a new timetable for equipment purchasing yet.
“We are keeping our capital spending flexible,” Chiang said.
Rival Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) is also considering canceling or postponing some orders for new equipment, the Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
ASE was not available for comment yesterday. The world’s biggest chip packager has budgeted a record high US$700 million for spending on new equipment for this year, up nearly 80 percent from last year’s US$390 million.
Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is projected to approach US$36.9 billion this year, an increase of 1.22 times from last year’s US$16.6 billion, according to a report by marktet research firm Gartner Inc yesterday.
Next year, semiconductor capital equipment spending will grow 4.9 percent to US$38.7 billion, the report said.
“Companies should also prepare business plans for the next equipment downcycle, starting in late 2012, because memory companies will have over-invested, thus generating excess equipment,” Klaus Rinnen, a Gartner managing vice president, said in the report.
The packaging and assembly equipment segment will increase more than 123 percent this year to US$6.05 billion and rise further to US$6.42 billion, according to Gartner’s forecast.
Shares of SPIL and ASE rose 1.31 percent and 1.08 percent to NT$30.85 and NT$23.5 respectively, underperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which rose 2.55 percent yesterday.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
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
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS