Staff Reporter, in HSINCHU COUNTY
Semiconductor equipment manufacturer Skytech Inc (天虹科技) yesterday gave a rosy business outlook for next year on expectations that revenue would grow at least 20 percent year-on-year, thanks to robust demand for advanced chip manufacturing and its new advanced packaging equipment.
The forecast is based on its clear order visibility through the middle of next year, the company said. To satisfy customers’ growing demand, Skytech is expanding its clean room in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The new clean room would be one-and-half times larger than the original one, when it is ready by the end of this year, it said.
Photo: Screenshot from Skytech Inc’s Web site
“We are upbeat about the 2025 outlook. We expect to see a similar growth pattern as this year, with a growth rate of more than 20 percent,” Skytech CEO George Yi (易錦良) said yesterday. “We have landed new orders from major chipmakers to supply equipment used in advanced packaging technology that is similar to the chip-on-wafer-on-substrate technology.”
Skytech is shipping physical vapor deposition tools, bonders and de-bonders used in advanced packaging technology, Yi said.
Some products are under customer review in preparation for future shipments, he said.
The company also secured new orders to supply atomic layer deposition equipment, which is used in the front-end chip manufacturing process, Yi said.
During the first 10 months of this year, Skytech’s revenue grew 18.33 percent to NT$1.69 billion (US$51.9 million) from NT$1.43 billion a year earlier. With more revenue coming in later this quarter, the company said revenue would climb to an all-time high this quarter.
Skytech is among a few Taiwanese companies that design and produce key equipment used in the chip manufacturing process. It has a broad customer base that includes Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
Semiconductor equipment made up about 50 percent of Skytech’s total revenue, including advanced front-end chip manufacturing equipment and packaging equipment, which accounted for about 20 percent of the firm’s total revenue.
Another half of revenue came from supplying components and parts to chipmakers, chip testing and packaging service providers, and other vendors, the firm said.
During the first three quarters, Skytech’s net profit soared 64.15 percent year-over-year to NT$261 million, from NT$159 million during the same period last year. That translated into earnings per share of NT$3.87, up from NT$2.62 in the same period a year earlier.
As Skytech has a 30-percent exposure to the Chinese market, it is closely monitoring how the geopolitical tension changes. Currently, local semiconductor equipment makers are not subject to any export ban yet.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS