Wafer and chip testing services provider Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (中華精測) yesterday reported that revenue last month grew 67.8 percent annually, fueled by rising demand for 5G-related chips, and processors for smartphones and servers.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has not stalled the deployment of 5G, Chunghwa Precision has “a cautiously optimistic view about the outlook for the third quarter,” it said in a statement.
The improving COVID-19 situation and the escalating 5G race between China and the US have also helped bolster demand for its wafer testing services and vertical probe card (VPC) business, it said.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
For the full year, Chunghwa Precision expects 5G applications and base stations to fuel demand for wafer testing services, given the complexity of 5G chips.
As the pandemic is raising uncertainty about the global economy, Chunghwa Precision said it is closely monitoring how the disease would affect consumer demand.
Revenue jumped to NT$353.2 million (US$11.81 million) last month, compared with NT$210.46 million a year earlier, hitting a nearly seven-month high.
On a monthly basis, revenue expanded 3 percent from NT$343.04 million.
That brought the company’s revenue in the first five months of the year to NT$1.6 billion, up 55.7 percent from NT$1.03 billion during the same period last year.
“The company’s expansion into the VPC market has borne fruit in May. The VPC is used in [testing] application processors for radio frequency, smartphones and ARM-based servers,” Chunghwa Precision said in a statement.
VPC sales last month grew 1.18 times to NT$2.76 billion from a year earlier, benefiting from rising demand for high-performance computing devices such as servers.
With its VPC portfolio expanding, the firm expects the risk of a single-customer concentration has dropped significantly.
The company has a 70 percent share of the global VPC market for smartphone application processors.
Revenue at the company’s probe service for printed circuit boards last month dropped 7.23 percent year-on-year to NT$540 million.
Shareholders yesterday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$10 per common share, representing a 1.58 percent yield based on the stock’s closing price of NT$631.
That translates into a payout ratio of 45.79 percent, based on earnings per share of NT$21.84.
Shareholders also elected a new board of directors. The seven-member board tapped Lin Kuo-feng (林國豐) to be the new chairman, succeeding Huang Hsiu-gu (黃秀谷).
Lin, former president of Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) mobile business, represents Chunghwa Investment Holding Co (中華投資), an entity wholly owned by the nation’s largest telecom.
Chunghwa Precision president Scott Huang (黃水可) was re-elected and would take a seat on the board.
The new board is to serve a three-year term until June 2, 2023.
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