Chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp’s (力積電) losses narrowed last quarter thanks to investment gains on technology transfer, the company said on Tuesday.
During the March quarter, Powerchip lost NT$1.1 billion (US$33.9 million), compared with losses of NT$1.5 billion in the previous quarter. That was the sixth quarterly loss in a row.
The company attributed the improvement to an investment gain of NT$1.68 billion from India’s Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd. Last year, Powerchip inked an agreement with Tata to help build India’s first 12-inch chip manufacturing facility by providing Tata with access to its mature technology nodes.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Powerchip’s gross margin improved to minus-4.8 percent last quarter from minus-11 percent in the prior quarter, after its factory utilization rate rose to 73 percent, the company said.
The US’ tariffs policy would not significantly impact the company’s business, as it only sends sample wafers to US customers, Powerchip president Martin Chu (朱獻國) said at an online earnings conference.
The uncertainty about the tariff war would still weigh on the company’s business outlook, Chu said.
“We have received rush orders since the beginning of this year. We are still seeing some in April, but the visibility blurs for May and June, indicating customers are likely taking a wait-and-see attitude,” Chu said.
European and US customers contributed 24 percent to its revenue last quarter, up from 18 percent in the previous quarter, while Taiwan remained the biggest revenue source, making up 53 percent of the total, the company said.
The company continues its transformation efforts to focus more on power management chips and less on DRAM chips, aiming to boost power management chip revenue to account for 40 percent of total revenue this year and eventually 60 percent, Chu said.
Last quarter, power management chips accounted for 23 percent of total revenue, he said.
Powerchip said its new fab in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區), which has an installed capacity of 85,000 12-inch wafers a month, has not reached economic scale yet.
The company plans to spend US$453 million on new facilities and equipment this year, it said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced