Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) yesterday gave an upbeat outlook for the second half of this year on the back customers’ eagerness to transfer orders from Chinese chipmakers in response to US chip restrictions.
Revenue from the new orders would become noticeable in July or August, and be even greater next year, the company projected.
“Many customers approached us after US-China trade frictions escalated,” Powerchip president Brian Shieh (謝再居) told a news conference. “We believe this should be a good business.”
Photo: CNA
The positive outlook also reflects a pickup in chip demand as businesses reopen after the long Lunar New Year holiday, Shieh said.
This year is a “transformation year” for Powerchip as the company aims to optimize its product portfolios, he said.
The company aims to reduce its exposure to lower-margin driver ICs used in flat panels and sensors amid cutthroat price competition with Chinese chipmakers, he said.
Revenue from driver ICs and sensors are expected to account for 15 percent of the company’s total revenue this year, halved from 30 percent last year, Powerchip said.
Power management chips would become the largest revenue contributor this year, it said.
Powerchip is making inroads into interposer technology, which is used in advanced packaging services, due to robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, the company said.
The chipmaker plans to double its interposer capacity to about 4,000 units next year from 2,000 units this year, it said.
Powerchip plans to have NT$30 billion to NT$34 billion (US$951.5 million to US$1.1 billion) in capital expenditures this year, including funding for capacity expansion at its new 12-inch fab in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區). It spent NT$48 billion last year.
Regarding its newly announced partnership with India’s Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said the company did not seek to invest in or operate the South Asian nation’s first 12-inch fab in Dholera, Gujarat.
Instead, the company would assist Tata Electronics to build the fab and collect license fees in the future, he said.
Tata Electronics is set to hold a ceremony on Tuesday next week to launch the construction of the fab, he added.
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