Phoenix Silicon International Corp (昇陽半導體) yesterday said strong demand from customers means it would maintain its capacity expansion plan for this year.
The silicon wafer recycler, which counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) among its major customers, next quarter plans to add a capacity of 60,000 12-inch wafers per month, bringing its total capacity to 300,000 wafers a month.
“Phoenix Silicon is enhancing its smart manufacturing capabilities and actively expanding 12-inch capacity at an existing fab to satisfy customer demand,” Phoenix chairman Mike Yang (楊聰敏) said in the firm’s annual report.
Phoenix is also evaluating the feasibility of building a second fab in response to increasing demand from customers, Yang said.
Demand has continued to grow, as customers entered production of advanced process technologies, the company said.
US-China trade tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic did not dampen demand for recycled wafers, but market visibility remains low for the second half of this year due to increasing uncertainty, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday.
However, major customers still show exuberant demand, and supply chain disruption is no longer a concern, the paper said.
Phoenix still expects the second half of the year to be better than the first half in terms of revenue, as normal, after ramping up new capacities.
Demand might bounce back in the third and fourth quarters, as many nations have cut key interest rates and implemented stimulus measures to boost their economies, it said.
The company’s shareholders yesterday gave the go-ahead to a proposed cash dividend distribution of NT$2 per common share, representing 4.03 percent in dividend yield compared with the company’s closing price of NT$49.65 on the main bourse.
Phoenix last year saw net profit soar 42.75 percent to NT$332.1 million (US$11.04 million) from NT$232.63 million in 2018. Earnings per share rose NT$2.51 from NT$1.87, while revenue expanded 25 percent to NT$2.65 billion from NT$2.12 billion in 2018.
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