Taiwan-based IC packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it has agreed to buy a plant in Kaohsiung from radio frequency chipmaker Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋) to expand its advanced IC assembly capacity.
To meet rising demand for high-end IC assembly services amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, ASE Technology said it would spend NT$6.5 billion (US$216.48 million) to buy the plant and related facilities in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) inside the Southern Taiwan Science Park, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Win Semiconductor said that the sale of the plant and equipment to ASE Technology was aimed at optimizing its assets and boosting its operating capital, adding that the deal would earn it about NT$1.94 billion.
Photo: CNA
In the past few years, ASE Technology has invested aggressively in advanced IC assembly capacity, including an investment of US$200 million to build its first large fan-out panel-level packaging services production line in Kaohsiung.
ASE Technology also broke ground in October last year on a new plant in Kaohsiung to expand its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate IC packaging services, with construction scheduled to be completed next year.
ASE Technology on Monday posted NT$51.54 billion in consolidated sales for last month, up 4.1 percent from a month earlier, but down 0.1 percent from a year earlier.
Citing the data, ASE Technology said it continued to feel the negative impact of a stronger New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar.
However, its operations benefited from solid global demand for high-performance computing devices and AI applications, despite the impact of the foreign exchange rate, it said.
In the first seven months of this year, ASE Technology’s consolidated sales rose 7.95 percent from the same period last year to NT$350.45 billion.
At an investors’ conference at the end of last month, ASE Technology forecast that its sales for the third quarter would grow 12 to 14 percent from the second quarter in US dollar terms, and 9 to 11 percent in NT dollar terms.
The forecast was made based on a foreign exchange rate of NT$29.2 against the US dollar, the company said.
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