Powertech Technology Inc (PTI, 力成科技), which provides memorychip packaging and testing services, yesterday said a new DRAM assembly facility in China it jointly owns with Micron Technology Inc has entered volume production, helping deepen its partnership with the US firm.
The plant — located in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi Province — is to mostly provide commodity DRAM packaging services for Micron.
PTI said it plans to invest a total of US$210 million in the plant. The total joint investment by PTI and Micron was not disclosed.
The plant is part of PTI’s adjustment to its manufacturing strategy whereby it is relocating lower-margin commodity DRAM capacity to China, while expanding its high-end capacity for mobile DRAM, graphic DRAM and logic processors in Taiwan.
“The newly constructed facility is to be operated by PTI and it will provide Micron with the best, most efficient packaging service for many years to come,” PTI chairman and chief executive Tsai Du-kung (蔡篤恭) said in a statement released yesterday.
The Xian plant is expected to produce 100 million chips by the end of this year, before reaching its full capacity in the first quarter of next year, PTI president Hung Chia-yu told investors last month.
PTI plans to spend as much as NT$13 billion (US$396.8 million) on new equipment and facilities this year, up 63 percent from last year’s approximately NT$8 billion.
The company posted 24 percent year-on-year growth in net profit last year with NT$4.02 billion, or earnings per share of NT$5.02, from NT$3.24 billion, or NT$4.24 per share, in 2014.
Revenue rose to a record high of NT$42.52 billion last year, boosted by strong growth primarily in its mobile DRAM business.
The company is maintaining an optimistic view about its operations this year, forecasting its revenue will grow quarter by quarter after a slow start in the first quarter due to customers’ inventory digestion and seasonal weakness, Hung said.
Revenue for this quarter is expected to grow at a double-digit percentage from last year’s NT$9.43 billion, he said.
PTI shares fell 1.13 percent to close at NT$69.9 in Taipei trading yesterday, the third consecutive day the shares closed lower.
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