ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂科技), a driver IC and memorychip tester and packager, expects revenue to increase by a double-digit percentage this year, fueled by strong demand and price hikes amid a supply crunch, company chairman Cheng Chih-chieh (鄭世杰) told an investors’ teleconference yesterday.
“We are quite bullish about ChipMOS’ business outlook this year, as the company is benefiting from improving semiconductor demand and short chip supply,” Cheng said. “We expect to see good growth momentum for our two major products — memorychip packaging and testing services, and display drive ICs.”
Gross margin would rise from 21.9 percent last year, he said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
ChipMOS’s optimism is built on its supply contracts with strategic clients, Cheng said.
Those orders guarantee that its factory utilization would hold steady, he said.
Its factory utilization rate climbed to 85 percent in the final quarter of last year from 76 percent a year earlier, the highest in two years, company data showed.
Revenue this quarter is expected to be similar to last quarter’s NT$6.31 billion (US$223.26 million), which was a record, Cheng said, bucking a downtrend in a slow first quarter this year.
Display driver ICs was the biggest revenue contributor last quarter, at 30 percent, he said.
ChipMOS this quarter is raising prices for its display driver ICs by 5 to 10 percent on average, the second price hike in the past few months, primarily because of higher raw material costs and rising demand, Cheng said.
Demand is strong for driver ICs for notebook computers and TV displays, as well as touch and display driver integration chips for smartphones, he said.
To cope with strong demand, ChipMOS plans to allocate 20 to 25 percent of its revenue this year to add new capacity, the firm said.
Last year, the company spent NT$4.13 billion on new facilities and manufacturing equipment, accounting for less than 20 percent of its revenue, it said.
Net profit contracted 8.4 percent to NT$2.37 billion last year from NT$2.58 billion a year earlier.
Earnings per share dropped to NT$3.26 from NT$3.55.
The company’s board of directors yesterday proposed the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$2.2 per common share, subject to approval by shareholders at the firm’s annual meeting on May 31.
ChipMOS said that it expects to distribute a higher cash dividend next year.
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