MediaTek Inc (聯發科), which supplies chips primarily to Chinese smartphone brands including Xiaomi Corp (小米), yesterday posted its weakest monthly revenue in the past year due to sluggish demand in emerging markets and fewer working days last month.
Revenue contracted 37.9 percent to NT$13.24 billion (US$401.1 million) last month, compared with January’s NT$21.33 billion. The figure represented a rebound of 36.93 percent from NT$9.67 billion the previous year.
MediaTek has to make NT$17.94 billion this month to hit its revenue target of NT$52.5 billion for this quarter, which would be a quarter-on-quarter contraction of 15 percent. The company made NT$34.57 billion in January and February.
The company forecast that intensifying pricing competition from Qualcomm Inc and China’s Spreadtrum Communications Inc (展訊), as well as weak demand would cap its gross margin at a historical low of about 38.5 percent this quarter.
The semiconductor industry’s weakness also extends to the memorychip sector.
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported its lowest monthly revenue in five months as demand for computers continued to weaken causing lower shipments last month.
The weakness in PC sector is expected to extend into next quarter, offsetting better demand for consumer electronic devices such as digital TVs, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) said.
However, Lee said he sees signs that the company’s business would stabilize.
“We do not see any exciting developments on the demand side, but we are seeing more signs indicating stability,” Lee said. “The second quarter will be a stable period compared with the first quarter. Prices are is still under great pressure.”
The price decline next quarter would be in a similar range to that of the current quarter, dragged down by soft PC and server demand, the company said.
Average selling prices stopped their downward spiral last month, helping the chipmaker to rein in the sequential decline to a single-digit percentage this quarter, it said.
However, demand for consumer electronics is better than the company expected, Lee said.
Demand for mobile DRAM chips was good as smartphone companies are planning new models with more memory, while demand for servers was not too bad, he said.
Revenue last month shrank 11.2 percent to NT$3.34 billion, compared with January’s NT$3.76 billion. That represented an annual decline of 15.78 percent.
Shipments fell 11.12 percent month-on-month last month due to fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
Revenue is expected to contract slightly this quarter from last quarter’s NT$10.35 billion on expectations that shipments would be flattish this quarter, Lee said.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), in which Nanya Technology holds a 24.6 percent stake, yesterday reported a 6.2 percent reduction in revenue last month to NT$3.41 billion, from NT$3.64 billion in January.
Nanya Technology has agreed to sell its stake in Inotera to Micron Technology Inc in exchange for a stake in the US chipmaker. The deal is expected to be competed by the middle of this year.
Another memorychip maker, Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電), posted revenue of to NT$3.2 billion last month, down 7.31 percent from January’s NT$3.46 billion.
The weakness also extended to chip testing and packaging sector as industry leader Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) yesterday reported a 16.7 percent decrease in revenue last month to NT$17.65 billion from NT$21.17 billion in January.
Revenue from its core packaging and testing business contracted 6.6 percent month-on-month to NT$11.38 billion.
Siliconware Precision Industries Inc (SPIL, 矽品精密), which is fighting a hostile takeover by ASE, yesterday posted revenue of NT$6.25 billion for last month, 5.8 percent lower than January’s NT$6.63 billion.
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