Phison Electronics Corp (群聯) customers have not scaled back orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead shifted demand to the second half of this year, driven by demand for 5G-related technologies, the company said yesterday.
The NAND flash memory controller supplier said the pandemic and large-scale lockdowns in China did not significantly affect its business, as reflected in its strong revenue last month.
That shows that market demand was “real,” the company said.
“We are optimistic about this year’s outlook,” Phison chairman Pua Khein-seng (潘健成) told a teleconference. “We are seeing a strong first quarter. Our first-quarter results will surprise you.”
Phison has been building NAND flash memorychip inventory since October last year to cope with rising demand, which caused supply constraints in January and have boosted flash memorychip prices by more than 50 percent, the company said.
“Demand is not vaporizing,” Pua said. “The pandemic just pushed back 5G deployment a little bit.”
He said that 5G technology would drive demand for data centers, base stations and related devices, fueling the strongest growth for flash products in 10 years.
Phison has received order backlogs for September and October this year with rush orders for solid state drive (SSD) controllers, which have high gross margin, he said.
“Customers from Europe, US, Japan and China have asked us to build inventory in advance as they are worried about a component crunch once demand comes back rapidly later this year,” Pua said.
“Customers have requested shipment of the goods they ordered as soon as the transportation ban is lifted,” he added.
Flash controllers contributed 23 percent to its revenue last quarter totaling NT$44.69 billion. (US$1.47 billion).
Aside from SSD controllers, demand for flash modules used in medical devices is also on the rise, he said.
Additionally, as companies and schools roll out teleconferencing systems to curb COVID-19 infections, demand for NAND flash controllers and modules for data storage and Internet infrastructure has risen, Pua said.
Phison received new rush orders from equipment vendors to meet teleconferencing demand, he said.
material SHORTAGE: Even as workers are about to return, Quanta lacks operating supplies, while Pegatron reported its lowest revenues in 11 quarters, the companies said Taiwan’s major Apple Inc supplier cut its outlook for the second quarter, joining a growing list of manufacturers warning about the fallout from lockdowns aimed at containing China’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), which assembles MacBooks, expects a 20 percent quarterly fall in notebook shipments and a squeeze on margins this quarter due to the lockdown, a company representative said on Friday during an earnings call. The impact from supply chain disruptions could last until the end of the year, she said. The company’s Shanghai factory has been operating under tight restrictions since the middle of last month,
The US and the EU were yesterday to announce a joint effort aimed at identifying semiconductor supply disruptions as well as countering Russian disinformation, officials said. Top US officials are visiting the French scientific hub of Saclay for a meetup of the Trade and Technology Council, created last year as China increasingly exerts its technology clout. US officials acknowledged that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has broadened the council’s scope, but said the Western bloc still has its eye on competition from China. The two sides will announce an “early warning system” for semiconductors supply disruptions, hoping to avoid excessive competition between Western powers
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has made further progress in its expansion into semiconductor manufacturing as its subsidiary teams up with Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX) to build a 12-inch wafer fab in Malaysia. Big Innovation Holdings Ltd (BIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hon Hai, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with DNeX to collaborate on establishing and operating the semiconductor fab in the Southeastern Asian country, it said in a statement released by DNeX on its Web site. The fab is expected to produce 40,000 12-inch wafers per month, deploying 28-nanometer and 40-nanometer process technologies, the statement said. Under
Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), which distributes Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Taiwan, yesterday introduced Toyota Motor Corp’s first all-electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), the bZ4X, joining rivals in vying for a share of the nation’s fast-growing electric vehicle market. Starting today, the bZ4X, with a price tag of NT$1.599 million (US$53,780), would be available for online purchase only and customers need to download a special app to place orders, Hotai said. Hotai has received 300 of the electric SUVs, it said, adding that it is not enough to meet robust market demand. A total of 229 electric vehicles were sold in the