Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子), which supplies read-only memory chips to Japan’s Nintendo Co, yesterday said strong demand has caused a severe shortage of its products, even in the slack season, boding well for the company’s profitability this year.
Robust demand has boosted Marconix’s confidence that it can make profits each quarter this year, chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求) told reporters on the sidelines of an annual general meeting.
That could pave the way for the company to distribute a cash dividend next year, Wu said, which would be the first such payout since 2012.
The biggest growth driver this year is expected to be NOR flash memory chips as the supply crunch persists, he said.
Demand for NAND flash memory chips, particularly single-level cell NAND flash memory, has greatly exceeded demand this year, Wu added.
Due to limited supplies, clients have since earlier this year been snatching up low-density NOR flash memory chips for use in applications such as Internet of Things and handheld devices, Wu said last month.
As demand continues to grow and outstrip supply, price increases are likely to be steeper this quarter and next quarter, compared with those in the first quarter, he said yesterday.
Last quarter, Macronix was profitable for a third consecutive quarter, after substantially cutting annual losses from NT$4.2 billion (US$139.4 million at the current exchange rate) in 2015 to NT$247 million last year, company data showed.
Shareholders yesterday approved a proposal to halve the number of issued shares in an effort to boost book value to above NT$10 per share, which would help the firm resume credit trading next quarter.
The company’s book value was NT$5.07 per share at the end of last quarter.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
RSS