Chip testing service provider King Yuan Electronics Co (京元電子) yesterday said shareholders have approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$4 per share, an all-time high for the company.
That distribution represented a 62 percent payout ratio based on earnings per share of NT$6.36 for last year, up 33 percent from NT$4.78 in the previous year.
King Yuan expects the global semiconductor industry to pick up in the second half of this year compared with the first, it said in an annual report.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Revenue would grow at a faster pace this year than previous years, thanks to robust demand for chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices, the report said.
AI and HPC products contributed about 28 percent to the company’s revenue in the first quarter of this year, up from 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Separately, foundry service provider Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) yesterday said shareholders have approved a distribution of NT$4.5 per share.
That marked the fourth consecutive year that the chipmaker would pay NT$4.5 per common share, although it posted the weakest net profit last year in four years at NT$7.05 billion (US$235.4 million), or earnings per share of NT$4.16.
The company said it would allocate part of its retained earnings to fund the cash dividend distribution.
Vanguard’s revenue expanded 15 percent year-on-year to NT$44.06 billion, as the global semiconductor industry recovered from a prolonged inventory correction cycle last year.
The global semiconductor industry is expected to expand at a stable pace of 11 percent this year, excluding the memorychip sector, Vanguard president John Wei (尉濟時) told shareholders, citing a projection from Gartner Inc.
The growth would be driven by rising demand for AI applications, he said.
Vanguard expects wafer shipments to increase about 14 percent to 2.5 million units this year, compared with 2.19 million units, the company’s annual report showed.
Shareholders of smaller foundry company Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) yesterday approved the management’s proposition of not paying any cash dividend this year, keeping the funds for a new 12-inch fab to expand capacity over the next two years.
Powerchip vice chairman Brain Hsieh (謝再居) told shareholders during an annual shareholders’ meeting that the company would continue investing in the facility in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) to reach an economic scale over the next two years.
Powerchip reported net losses for the second consecutive year last year, with losses expanding to NT$6.8 billion from NT$1.64 billion in 2023.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS