Taiwanese semiconductor companies expect to see revenues fall 4.6 percent quarter-on-quarter from October to December, marking a fall in annual revenue of 11.4 percent to NT$1.52 trillion (US$503 million) from last year, as the worse-than-expected global economy and floods in Thailand hurt demand, a local market researcher projected.
The full-year forecast is lower than the previous estimate of NT$1.57 trillion from the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Research Center (IEK, 產業經濟與趨勢研究中心) three months ago.
This quarter, revenues are expected to fall to NT$359.3 billion, compared to NT$376.7 billion last quarter, which was a weaker-than-expected period with revenues contracting 6 percent, according to IEK’s projections on Thursday.
“Weak demand in the US and Europe and the impact of the Thai floods on the electronics supply chain will depress demand for notebook computers, consumer electronics and even the new Ultrabook laptops,” the IEK said in the report.
PC DRAM chipmakers would suffer the brunt of falling demand and persistent oversupply, the research house said.
Revenues in the sector are forecast to decline 7.24 percent quarter-on-quarter from NT$45.6 billion to NT$42.3 billion, as a result of falling prices and lower shipments, following a 24.4 percent quarterly decrease in revenue last quarter, the researcher said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s top contract chipmaker, expects revenues to decrease by between 1.39 percent and 3.27 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, and the nation’s biggest handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) expects revenues to fall by a quarterly rate of 5 percent.
The latest data from the semiconductor association SEMI highlights the lackluster prospects for the industry, though the latest book-to-bill ratio rebounded slightly from 0.71 in September to 0.74 last month, SEMI’s statistics showed yesterday.
The ratio has been below one for the past 13 months since it hit 1.03 in September last year, according to the association’s tally. A book-to-bill ratio of less than one indicates falling demand, while a ratio of greater than one shows growth.
A book-to-bill of 0.74 last month means that US$74 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of product billed for the month.
“Recent billings and bookings reflect the slowing capital investment in the industry that has been evident throughout the year,” SEMI chief executive Denny McGuirk said.
Although overall spending has fallen, investments in NAND flash memory chips and next--generation technologies enabling IC geometry smaller than 30 nanometer have continued, McGuirk said.
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