Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) yesterday said the COVID-19 pandemic would not be an obstacle to it making a record-high revenue this year, after posting its strongest first-quarter net profits in about nine years amid robust solid-state-disk (SSD) demand.
The Hsinchu-based memorychip packager and tester said most of its factories in Taiwan, China and Japan have been operating normally, unaffected by the outbreak.
“We still hold an optimistic and positive view about the second quarter. Local governments have reined in the spread of the pandemic, allowing Powertech’s fabs to operate smoothly,” chairman D.K. Tsai (蔡篤恭) told investors.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
“Some might be worried about the impact of [high] inventory [amid concern over supply disruptions last quarter], but we are seeing strong customer demand for the third and fourth quarters,” Tsai said. “We believe Powertech’s [revenue] will climb to a historical high this year, unfazed by COVID-19.”
Its confidence is also built on healthy fundamentals, as 5G-related applications, such as smartphones and 5G-enabled infrastructure and networking devices, are to fuel growth, the firm said.
Work-from-home, e-learning, e-commerce and game consoles are also stimulating demand for data centers, PCs and memory chips used in those devices, it said.
Powertech expects “a positive growth in revenue for the second quarter,” president Hung Chia-yu said.
Its DRAM business is expected to outgrow that of NAND flash memory, benefiting from launches of new smartphones and high-speed graphics, and ongoing momentum from notebook computers and data centers, he said.
Demand for system-in-package (SiP) modules has also been strong, driven by increasing consumption of SSD storage for data centers, he said.
Powertech is adding capacity this year after its loading rate climbed to 95 percent last quarter, Hung said.
Overall, loading rate for packaging services is expected to rise to as high as 85 percent this quarter, from 80 percent last quarter, he said.
Net profit jumped to NT$1.63 billion (US$54.15 million) in the first quarter, compared with NT$1.05 billion in the same period last year, marking the best first-quarter in about nine years.
On a quarterly basis, net profit dipped 21.6 percent from NT$2.01 billion, which was an all-time high.
Earnings per share rose to NT$2.1 from NT$1.36 a year ago, but down from NT$2.68 in the previous quarter.
The pandemic has delayed construction on its first panel-based packaging fab in Hsinchu by one to two quarters, but it still aims to complete construction in the fourth quarter this year, paving the way for small-volume production in the second half of next year as scheduled, Powertech said.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS