ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光控股) yesterday reported that its net profit more than doubled to a record NT$14.18 billion (US$509.45 million) last quarter, as it operated near full capacity due to robust demand from the computer and communications segments.
That compared with a net profit of NT$6.71 billion a year earlier and NT$10.34 billion in the previous quarter. Earnings per share rose to NT$3.29 last quarter, compared with NT$1.57 the previous year and NT$2.4 the prior quarter.
Gross margin improved to 20.4 percent last quarter. It was 16 percent a year ago and 19.5 percent in the second quarter.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
ASE said it expects this quarter to be “flattish,” with revenue approaching last quarter’s NT$88.79 billion, due to a shortage of wafers and substrates.
Revenue from its electronics manufacturing services (EMS), primarily its system-in-a-package (SiP) service, should increase to about NT$79.14 million from last quarter’s NT$61.12 billion, the company said.
However, the company said it would likely miss its operating profit margin target of 4 percent for the EMS business this year, due to component shortages and supply chain disruptions.
“What we are seeing is some softness in demand in certain areas, but, in general, the whole industry is still going through rapid growth,” ASE chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) told investors during a teleconference.
“Customers are seeking to secure more supply,” he said.
Factory utilization is to stay at a high level of 85 percent for its chip packaging services and 80 percent for its chip testing services, similar to last quarter’s levels, he said.
Despite noises about double booking and potential softness in end product demand, ASE said it believes there is still substantial pent-up demand.
The Kaohsiung-based company said it expects its business to continue growing next year, with a better-than-seasonal outlook for the first quarter of next year.
The company said it continues “to have strong order flows from a vast majority of our customers, with orders well extending into 2022 and some in 2023, well beyond normal booking time.”
ASE said it also expects to see a “friendly pricing environment” next year, indicating an upside for prices.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
RSS