Acter Group Co (聖暉), which specializes in installing cleanroom electromechanical integration and pipelining systems for semiconductor companies, yesterday said that revenue should rise by a double-digit percentage this year, benefiting from capacity expansions by foundries and major memory chipmakers amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
The company benefits from strong AI infrastructure investment sprees by the world’s major cloud service providers, spurring demand for advanced chips and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) chip packaging capacity from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), and high-bandwidth-memory and standard DRAM chips from Micron Technology Inc and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技).
“We are targeting double-digit percent revenue and profit growth this and next year, building on a high base in 2025,” Acter spokesman Jeff Liang (梁鈞幃) told a media briefing.
Photo: CNA
“As of January, orders on hand exceeded NT$50 billion [US$1.58 billion]. That is just a baseline estimate,” he said.
That was an increase from NT$46.8 billion orders received during the same period last year, he added.
The company’s revenue surged 37 percent year-over-year last year to a record-high NT$41.48 billion.
Acter also expects contributions from its overseas projects to expand after new construction projects, including semiconductor fabs and data centers in the US, Japan and Southeast Asia, commence this year.
Its overseas operations made up about 40 percent of the company’s total revenue last year.
The US is to start contributing to revenue this year, accounting for about 7 percent of the total and rising to 20 percent next year, Acter said.
Gross margin is expected to improve further this year from 21 percent last year, given greater overseas market exposure, it said.
“We have to look beyond the home market and be prepared for future growth after domestic fab expansions reach their peak,” Liang said.
Liang identified rising raw material costs and a labor shortage as two key challenges this year.
To optimize its overseas operations’ cost management, Acter has formed a strategic alliance, or “flagship fleets” with industry peers in the US and Southeast Asian countries to leverage each other’s resources, as they serve the same customers, he said.
Greenfiltec Ltd (濾能), a filter manufacturer specializing in airborne molecular contamination prevention and semiconductor chemical filters, and Acter subsidiary Rayzher Industrial Co (銳澤) are members of the flagship fleets.
Rayzher, which specializes in installing main systems and gas pipelines to transmit utilities for semiconductor manufacturers, has set up branches in Japan, Singapore and Phoenix, Arizona, to provide on-site services for customers.
The company plans to build a branch in Germany next quarter, it said.
Another subsidiary, Nova Technology Corp (朋億), said it would benefit from the memory chip’s supercycle, as it has won orders from major memory chipmakers to help install water, gas and chemicals supply pipeline systems, company president David Ma (馬蔚) said.
Revenue should rebound this year after last year’s 14.13 percent decline, he said.
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