Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美晶) yesterday posted its best annual net profit in nine years, mostly with support from its semiconductor subsidiary and improving solar businesses.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic is creating uncertainty in the world economy and the industry, SAS said.
The pandemic is slowing solar installation worldwide due to labor shortages amid large-scale lockdowns, travel bans and border closures in Europe and the US, SAS president Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) told investors at an earnings conference.
SAS customers are likely to ask it to delay shipments of solar modules and solar cells to Germany and the US until the middle of next month or May, Hsu said. No customers have yet scaled back orders, she added.
Without the effects of the pandemic, solar installation worldwide would grow by a double-digit percentage annually to 142 gigawatts this year, Hsu said.
Last year, SAS’ net profit rose 1.1 percent year-on-year to NT$8.9 billion (US$291.75 million) from NT$8.64 billion. That translated into earnings per share of NT$3.86, up from NT$3.36 the previous year.
The company’s board of directors has proposed a cash dividend distribution of NT$5 per common share by allocating part of its capital surplus for the distribution. Last year, the company distributed a cash dividend of NT$3 per share.
Separately, GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), which is 51 percent owned by SAS, yesterday said that the Malaysian government had approved restarting its fab in the country, as the semiconductor sector is exempted from nationwide travel restrictions.
The world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier said the fab is at full capacity, as supply of 6-inch silicon wafers and smaller-diameter wafers became tight because of the pandemic.
GlobalWafers on Tuesday raised its capital spending budget to more than NT$1 billion this year mostly for a new 12-inch fab in South Korea, as it expects supply constraints to recur next year and COVID-19 to affect customer demand in the short term.
“Customers are eager to get more wafers from us. That part of demand is for safety inventory ... I think for the short term in the second quarter and the third quarter, demand from our customers will adjust a little bit because of the coronavirus,” Hsu, who doubles as GobalWafers chairwoman, said at a separate conference on Tuesday.
“So far, we haven’t received any clear instructions from any of our customers asking for any cancelation, or shipment push-out,” she said.
“Next year will become strong again and supply will be very tight. If there was no COVID-19, starting the second half of this year, supply would be very tight,” she said.
The average selling prices of the company’s products are expected to drop by a very slow single-digit percentage this year from last year, she said.
GlobalWafers reported record net profit for last year at NT$13.64 billion, up 0.4 percent from NT$13.63 billion in 2018. Earnings per share increased from NT$31.18 to NT$31.35 over the period.
The company has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$25 per share, the same as last year.
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