CHIPMAKERS
UMC posts record revenue
United Microelectronics Co (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 3 contract chipmaker, yesterday reported record monthly revenue of NT$16.62 billion (US$584.66 million) for last month, up 14.06 percent from NT$14.57 billion a year earlier and 11.17 percent from NT$14.95 billion in February. In the first three months of this year, cumulative revenue grew 11.43 percent to NT$47.1 billion from NT$42.27 billion a year earlier, UMC said in a statement. Cumulative revenue grew 3.98 percent quarter-on-quarter, in line with the company’s forecast. Separately, Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which supplies memory chips for Japanese gaming console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday reported that its revenue dropped 7.1 percent annually, but increased 19.8 percent monthly to NT$3.61 billion last month. The company said cumulative revenue in the first quarter was NT$9.63 billion, the best revenue for the first quarter on record.
ELECTRONICS
Yageo revenue doubles
Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s third-largest supplier of passive components, yesterday said that its revenue more than doubled to NT$8.73 billion last month from NT$4.03 billion a year earlier and grew 24.6 percent from NT$7.01 billion in February. Yageo attributed the growth to an increase in the number of working days and healthy demand. Cumulative revenue in the first quarter soared 137 percent annually to NT$23.74 billion — the second-highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history, it said. Meanwhile, rival Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技) said that its revenue jumped 53.7 percent year-on-year and 25.7 percent month-on-month to NT$3.76 billion last month. Walsin said demand has increased due to a stay-at-home economy and cloud-computing devices. First-quarter revenue expanded 64.1 percent year-on-year to NT$10.46 billion from NT$6.37 billion.
MACHINERY
Parts makers beat forecasts
The performance of makers of industrial automation components beat market expectations last month, with linear-motion component suppliers, such as Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技), and pneumatic parts makers, such as Airtac International Group (亞德客), reporting record revenues. Hiwin yesterday posted revenue of NT$2.16 billion, up 15.79 percent month-on-month and 59.22 percent year-on-year, while Airtac’s revenue was NT$2.39 billion, up 69.34 percent month-on-month and 37.58 percent year-on-year, regulatory filings showed. In the first quarter, Hiwin’s revenue totaled NT$5.99 billion, up 65.8 percent from a year earlier and the highest for the January-to-March quarter, while Airtac’s revenue was NT$5.93 billion, up 87.89 percent and also a record.
PHARMACEUTICALS
EirGenix, Hong Wei ink pact
EirGenix Inc (台康生技) on Tuesday signed a letter of intent with Hong Wei Investment Co (鋐維股份) to sell 55 million new common shares via a private placement for NT$5.04 billion, the pharmaceuticals firm said in a statement. The deal would allow Hong Wei to secure an 18.56 percent stake in EirGenix and become the largest shareholder of the company, the statement said. EirGenix, a contract development and manufacturing organization and biosimilars maker, said that the deal is conducive to its long-term development as it would help enhance the company’s operating efficiency and bolster its competitiveness. The main shareholder of Hong Wei is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘).
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
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