Holtek Semiconductor Inc (盛群半導體) expects revenue to grow sequentially by a double-digit percentage this quarter, with growth momentum potentially extending into next quarter due to price hikes and healthy customer demand mainly from China, a company executive said yesterday.
The microcontroller units developer said it is considering raising prices further in the second half of this year to reflect an uptrend in wafer costs.
Holtek raised the prices of all of its products by 15 percent this month.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
“Based on our orders on hand for the second quarter, we expect [revenue] will grow by a double digit percentage from the first quarter,” Armstrong Tsai (蔡榮宗), vice president of the Holtek Semiconductor Inc sales and marketing center, told an investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
A shortage of wafer capacity has caused headaches, while customer demand has not been a problem at all, Holtek said.
A rebound in demand from China, the biggest export destination for Holtek, would boost revenue growth this quarter, while demand from other overseas markets has remained sluggish amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Holtek earlier this month asked customers to stop placing new orders for this year as it could not secure enough wafer capacity amid the chip shortage.
Tsai yesterday said that the company is seeking new wafer supply contracts from chipmakers and, if successful, could begin accepting new orders next month.
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) is Holtek’s major wafer supplier.
Holtek is accepting orders for next year with a downpayment of 30 percent of total orders to avoid overbooking.
Semiconductor supply chain capacity constraints have stretched the company’s product delivery cycle to six months from a regular cycle of three months, Tsai said, adding that tight capacity at chip testing and packaging service providers was mainly to blame.
Holtek’s revenue surged 42 percent year-on-year to NT$1.47 billion (US$52.58 million) last quarter, after it shipped 30 percent more microcontroller units primarily used in home appliances, as well as healthcare devices, such as forehead thermometers and blood pressure meters.
Microcontroller units made up 75 percent of the company’s total revenue last quarter.
Holtek saw net profit soar 138 percent to NT$347.2 million — the second-highest in the company’s history — from NT$145.8 million in the first quarter of last year.
On a quarterly basis, net profit contracted 3.4 percent from NT$355.32 million, which had been a record high.
Earnings per share jumped to NT$1.59 last quarter from NT$0.64 a year earlier.
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