AblePrint Technology Co (APT, 印能科技) yesterday said it expects strong revenue growth this year due to robust demand for advanced packaging for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chips.
AI applications helped prop up APT’s revenue in the second half of last year thanks to rising demand for advanced chip packaging technologies, including chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, or CoWoS, fanout packaging and panel-level packaging, the Hsinchu-based firm said.
That compares with a slump in the first half of last year, when most semiconductor companies suffered from an inventory-driven correction, it said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
In the first two months of this year, revenue increased 88.13 percent year-on-year to NT$218 million (US$6.93 million), company data showed.
APT supplies burn-in ovens and related technologies to address major issues faced by customers in the manufacturing processes — from void eliminations to void-free soldering and package warpage suppression.
The company counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the world’s leading chip packagers among its customers.
“As our customers are growing, we will be growing, too,” APT chairman Auger Horng (洪誌宏) told a media briefing in Taipei.
APT wants to “wow” investors with substantial revenue growth this year, Horng said, implying that growth could be as high as 50 percent from a year earlier.
The company has a good order visibility of six months this year, he said.
China and North America are the two markets with the greatest growth potential, he added.
APT reported a 30 percent annual decline in revenue last year to NT$1.19 billion.
Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia accounted for 70 percent of the company’s revenue last year, it said.
Net profit last year plummeted 29 percent to NT$549 million from NT$776 million a year earlier.
Gross margin improved to 66.3 percent from 65.8 percent.
In light of the growing AI business, APT plans to set up a sales office in the US, as customers are building new chip packaging factories in the US and Mexico, the company said.
North America leads global demand for AI chips, it said.
APT is to start trading on the Emerging Stock Board today at NT$489 per share.
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