Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest supplier of NOR flash memory chips, yesterday said it plans to allocate NT$41.5 billion (US$1.48 billion) to expand 12-inch wafer capacity for advanced 3D NAND and NOR flash memory chips, as it has technology readiness and there is robust market demand.
Some of the new chips will be designed for vehicles, Macronix said.
The company aims to this year become the world’s largest supplier of NOR flash memory chips used in automobiles.
Photo courtesy of Macronix International Co
The outlay is for a second-phase expansion of Macronix’s Fab 5 in Hsinchu, and the company expects to ship the first chips from the new production line in the fourth quarter of next year, while the line would begin contributing revenue in 2023.
“We will be very careful and disciplined in carrying out this capital expenditure plan,” Macronix president Lu Chih-yuan (盧志遠) told investors during a quarterly online conference.
“It is a multi-phase capacity expansion plan,” Lu said.
The capacity expansion would help boost Macronix’s profit growth and enhance its flexibility in product allocations, Lu said.
The Fab 5 is to have an installed capacity of 40,000 12-inch wafers per month, up from 20,000 wafers, he said.
The new investment would not compromise its gross margin, he said.
Gross margin improved to 39.1 percent last quarter, the highest since the second quarter of 2018.
Macronix’s net profit surged 45 percent to NT$1.93 billion last quarter on higher shipments and better prices, compared with NT$1.33 billion a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 110 percent from NT$916 million, the company said.
Earnings per share increased to NT$1.04, from NT$0.72 a year earlier and NT$0.5 last quarter, it said.
The company is upbeat about this quarter, expecting full factory utilization on the back of robust demand.
“We expect this situation to extend into this quarter. We are optimistic about the fourth quarter,” Lu said. “We do not see any negative indicators.”
The company expects strong demand for read-only memory (ROM) chips due to seasonal factors, Lu said.
Macronix is a long-term ROM supplier to Nintendo Co.
ROM chips accounted for 27 percent of Macronix’s total revenue last quarter, compared with 26 percent in the first quarter. NOR memory chips made up 50 percent, while NAND memory chips contributed 16 percent. The remaining 7 percent was from foundry services.
Macronix expects to strike a deal with a potential buyer for its 6-inch fab this summer.
The fab has contributed NT$1.3 billion to NT$1.4 billion a year in revenue.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS