Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密) expects revenue to expand at an annual pace of more than 10 percent this year to NT$5 billion (US$164.18 million) as Chinese chipmakers turn to the company for supplies of wafer pods in the wake of the US-China technology war.
Longer term, the company sees revenue growing to NT$10 billion within three years.
Gudeng is a beneficiary of Washington’s tightening export controls on advanced semiconductor technologies and equipment to China to slow Beijing’s progress.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The US curbs have limited Chinese companies’ access to key components, Gudeng said yesterday.
“Since late last year, many Chinese companies have replaced US and European suppliers with Gudeng. That has been reflected in the company’s revenue growth,” Gudeng chairman Bill Chiu (邱銘乾) told reporters at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城).
“We have seen a constant flow of orders from China because of geopolitical factors,” Chiu said. “We are struggling to keep up with the demand.”
Revenue skyrocketed 54 percent annually last month to NT$426.53 million. That brought the company’s revenue in the first two months to NT$740.05 million, growing 20.54 percent from NT$614 million during the same period last year.
Last year, Gudeng’s revenue soared 44 percent year-on-year to NT$4.5 billion.
The new Chinese orders are mostly for Gudeng’s wafer pods, which are box-like front-opening unified pods (FOUP) used to ship, transport and store wafers. Wafers are unloaded from the FOUP within processing equipment to keep the wafers sterile.
Chinese clients — including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) and ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc (長鑫) — contributed about 19 percent to Gudeng’s revenue last year.
To cope with the growing demand from China, Gudeng has inked a letter of intent to acquire Golden Dragon Global Ltd for 107.5 million yuan (US$15.64 million) to facilitate its expansion in China.
Taiwan is the biggest revenue source for Gudeng, accounting for 70 percent last year. Gudeng is the world’s largest extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pod supplier, with a market share of 80 percent.
EUV pods are used to carry reticles when EUV tools are utilized to produce chips. The company is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) sole supplier of EUV pods.
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