Tong Hsing Electronic Industries Inc (同欣電), an image sensor packaging services arm of Yageo Corp (國巨), yesterday said that the COVID-19 pandemic has not negatively affected demand and it expects revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage year-on-year this quarter, despite it being likely to decline by a single-digit percentage quarter-on-quarter from NT$2.09 billion (US$68.7 million) due to seasonal weakness.
“Our business performance will meet our guidance as customer demand remains intact, despite the COVID-19 outbreak,” Tong Hsing president Heinz Ru (呂紹萍) told investors in a teleconference.
The pandemic has had a minor impact on the firm’s factory in the Philippines due to transportation restrictions, but it is mainly operating normally as export-oriented industries are exempt from the quarantine measures imposed by the Philippine government, Ru said.
The company’s plants in Taipei and Taoyuan are also operating normally, thanks to a smooth supply of raw materials, he said.
“The first quarter will be very different this year compared with the same period in previous years. We expect strong growth this quarter and are also optimistic about the second-quarter outlook,” he said.
CMOS image sensor (CIS) packaging services would grow at the fastest rate this quarter, supported by growing demand for higher-resolution cameras for smartphones in China and for multiple-camera handsets, he said.
To cope with strong demand for CIS services, Tong Hsing plans to more than double its monthly capacity to 160,000 wafers at its plant in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), Ru said.
As a result, capital expenditure this year is set to soar to NT$2.17 billion from NT$657.25 million last year, the company said.
Tong Hsing expects the CIS business to become its biggest source of revenue this year, replacing the ceramic substrate business, following the acquisition of CIS service provider Kingpak Technology Inc (勝麗), it said.
Ceramic substrates accounted for 40 percent of the company’s revenue last year.
Tong Hsing posted a net profit of NT$741.96 million for last year, down 26.8 percent from NT$1.01 billion in 2018, primarily due to foreign-exchange losses of NT$42 million during the final quarter of the year.
Earnings per share fell to NT$4.49 from NT$6.13.
Gross margin last year shrank to 21.5 percent from 25.7 percent in 2018 due to an unfavorable product mix.
Revenue rose 0.2 percent to NT$7.43 billion last year, from NT$7.41 billion in 2018.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people