ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂科技), a display driver IC and memorychip tester and packager, yesterday said that it is raising the prices of most packaging and testing services this quarter as robust demand continues to drive its factory utilization to a high level, compared with an average of 87 percent last quarter.
The Hsinchu-based firm started to raise prices of packaging and testing services last month to reflect higher raw material costs and worsening capacity constraints amid constant delays in the delivery of new manufacturing equipment, it said.
Higher utilization rates and price increases are to give a further lift to the company’s net profit this quarter, ChipMOS chairman Cheng Chih-chieh (鄭世杰) told a videoconference.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
“In the wake of recovering demand, the company expects the growth momentum to extend into this quarter from last quarter,” Cheng said. “All of the company’s product lines will benefit.”
ChipMOS is expanding its capacity to meet customers’ demand, but the supply of raw materials and manufacturing equipment is unstable, he said.
This quarter, its testing and packaging service for memory chips is to outgrow the driver IC business due to a lack of supply of wafers, which would lead to fluctuations in the utilization of driver IC equipment, he added.
“We do not see wafer supply tightness ending in the short term,” Cheng said. “Customer demand remains strong.”
The driver IC segment contributed 45.4 percent of total revenue last quarter, while the chip testing and packaging segment accounted for 43.1 percent.
The company is optimistic about its revenue growth this quarter and next quarter, as customers are proactively building inventory to cope with rebounding demand for consumer electronics and automotive parts, Cheng said.
ChipMOS yesterday reported that revenue hit a record high of NT$2.42 billion (US$86.95 million) last month, up 2.5 percent from NT$2.36 billion in June and an increase of 28.16 percent from NT$1.89 billion in the same period last year.
The company posted a net profit of NT$1.28 billion for the second quarter, a 135 percent annual increase.
Gross margin improved to 28.2 percent from 24.2 percent in the first quarter and 20.7 percent in the same period last year.
ChipMOS booked NT$60 million of income from its Chinese subsidiary Unimos Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co Ltd (紫光宏茂) last quarter, it said.
Unimos Microelectronics, a joint venture with Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光), swung into profit in the second quarter and is expected to continue growing after receiving new orders from Yangtze Memory Technology Corp (長江存儲), ChipMOS said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS