Shares of semiconductor equipment maker Skytech Inc (天虹科技) soared 85.22 percent in the company’s debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, closing at NT$213, compared with the firm’s initial public offering price of NT$115.
Skytech aims to boost its revenue by 20 percent next year, outpacing the expected growth of the overall semiconductor industry.
The Hsinchu-based firm is among only a few Taiwanese companies that design and produce key equipment used in the chip manufacturing process.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
It has a broad customer base that includes Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
Skytech’s revenue in the first three quarters of this year grew 12.83 percent year-on-year to NT$1.34 billion (US$42.53 million), with 70 percent generated by equipment used to produce compound semiconductors.
“We are looking at faster [revenue] growth than the overall semiconductor industry next year. That is our internal target,” Skytech chairman Paul Huang (黃見駱) told a media briefing in Taipei on Monday. “The main growth driver will come from the third-generation semiconductor, or compound semiconductor, segment primarily from China.”
Skytech expects revenue to climb to a new high next year, when the global semiconductor industry is expected to resume growth, expanding by 20 percent, according to an estimate by market researcher IDC Corp.
Skytech produces physical vapor deposition (PVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment and charges 20 percent less than its major competitors.
ALD equipment an important part of next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
The global PVD market is expected to expand at an annual compound rate of 5.8 percent to US$45.86 billion from last year to 2029, with the fastest growth in the Asia-Pacific region, Maximize Market Research said last month.
Applied Materials Inc is a key player in the PVD market, it said.
Skytech said it is working with its customers to design new equipment used in advanced technologies from 2.5-dimension to 3-dimension packaging technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate technology, as well as new silicon photonics technology, which ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager, and TSMC consider a crucial technology for the future of semiconductor manufacturing.
Skytech also supplies components and parts to chip makers, chip testing and packaging service providers, and other vendors.
The US’ semiconductor export curbs on China are not expected to affect Skytech’s business, as semiconductor components are not among the restrictions, the company said.
There is greater growth potential from Chinese semiconductor makers, as China is racing to increase chip self-sufficiency, it said.
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