Major silicon wafer suppliers’ sales last month met market expectations, and the positive effects of their price hikes are expected to persist in the second half of this year, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said yesterday.
Wafers are expected to remain in short supply, benefiting major suppliers in the near term, Yuanta said in a research note.
GlobalWafers Inc (環球晶圓) posted record revenue of NT$6.04 billion (US$203.08 million) for last month, up 14.9 percent month-on-month and 25.8 percent year-on-year, which Yuanta attributed to intensive renewals of the company’s long-term agreements in the second quarter, resulting in higher average selling prices.
Photo: Cheng I-Hwa, Bloomberg
“We expect GlobalWafers’ sales to rise by 4 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, given the tight 12-inch supply-demand balance,” Yuanta said.
Formosa Sumco Technology Corp’s (台勝科) revenue for last month grew 1.9 percent monthly and 44.7 percent annually to NT$1.36 billion, the highest figure in 40 months, while Wafer Works Corp (合晶科技) reported revenue of NT$1.01 billion for last month, up 2.36 percent from a month earlier and 21.77 percent from a year earlier, company data showed.
In the first five months, GlobalWafers’ combined revenue totaled NT$27.61 billion, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier, while Formosa Sumco’s rose 32.6 percent to NT$6.43 billion and Wafer Works’ increased 27.97 percent to NT$5.05 billion, the data showed.
Yuanta forecast that Formosa Sumco and Wafer Works would continue to increase their average selling prices of products, as they need to conduct price negotiations every six months for many of their long-term contracts.
Coupled with a persistently tight supply of 8-inch and 12-inch wafers, the companies are expected to report a 5 percent upside in price quotes in the second half of the year, the note said.
Last week, Japanese silicon wafer supplier Sumco Corp reportedly planned to raise long-term agreement prices by 30 percent from this year to 2024, while Shin-Etsu Chemical Co proposed raising prices in 2024 to pass on depreciation costs from its new plant to its customers, a Nikkei Asia report said.
Formosa Sumco also said that the 12-inch supply-demand gap would likely grow to 10 percent next year, Yuanta said.
“We believe this development will support a pricing uptrend and be positive for the overall silicon wafer sector,” it said.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS