United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) posted NT$93 million (US$3.01 million) in net income for the first quarter, a fraction of the NT$3.03 billion it reported in the same period last year, as demand has dwindled amid weak sentiment.
The result translated into earnings of per share of NT$0.10.
The semiconductor firm posted consolidated revenue of NT$32.58 billion for last quarter, down 13.1 percent year-on-year and 8.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, it said.
Gross margin stood at 6.9 percent.
The company said that the revenue decline was mainly due to a lower utilization rate, which was 83 percent, down from 88 percent in the previous quarter.
Consequently gross profit dropped 50.8 percent to NT$2.3 billion from NT$4.6 billion.
However, due to a stock market recovery, non-operating income rose to NT$1.2 billion, reversing a NT$1.99 billion loss the previous quarter.
The company booked an overall operating loss of NT$1.60 billion.
The company said that the average selling price in the foundry segment declined slightly in the first quarter.
UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) said that “although overall wafer demand declined during the first quarter, we observed stable wafer shipments from the wireless communication segment, solidified by smartphone-related components such as displays, Rfs [radio frequency chips], application processors and baseband modems.”
The company’s board of directors has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$0.58 per share subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting, Wang said.
The company would strive to improve wafer demand within the wired and wireless communication segments, he said, adding that the company is seeing better-than-expected conditions in the smartphone, networking and display-related segments.
UMC estimates that wafer shipments would increase by between 6 and 7 percent this quarter, while the average selling price in US dollars would increase by 3 percent.
Capital expenditure of US$1 billion this year remains unchanged, with 75 percent on 12-inch wafers and the remaining 25 percent on 8-inch wafers, UMC said.
“We have already received Taiwanese approval of the acquisition of 12-inch wafer foundry Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd (MIFS),” UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said.
The company is still waiting for other governments to approve the deal in the next six months, Liu added.
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