Following his announcement of strong fourth-quarter results, Bough Lin, chairman of Siliconware Precision Industries Ltd (SPIL), said he is optimistic about the next three quarters.
Demand will grow steadily across the PC, communications and memory sectors in the first three quarters of this year, he said. However, Lin is uncertain whether growth will be sustained into the fourth quarter, considering the US presidential elections and that the Olympics games will be over by then.
However, the uncertainty has not prevented the world’s third-largest packaging and testing company from boosting its capital expenditures. This year, SPIL will double its capex budget to over NT$8 billion (about US$241 million), of which about NT$5 billion will be used to boost its packaging capacity, according to Lin.
4Q results
SPIL’s fourth-quarter net sales grew 11.8% quarter-on-quarter to NT$8 billion. In an October investors conference, Lin projected net sales would grow by a “low single digit.”
Gross margins for the fourth quarter surprised analysts with a drop of 1.5 percentage points from the previous quarter. Lin blamed the drop on a 10-15% increase in substrate costs. Net profits jumped 24.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$1.4 billion.
Unlike rival Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), which has its own in-house substrate supply, SPIL sources substrates from affiliate Phoenix Precision Technology (PPT), Compeq Manufacturing and some Japanese suppliers.
SPIL holds a 17% stake in PPT, which is traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).
|
SPIL: 4Q 2003 financial performance (NT$m) | |||||
|
|
4Q 2003 |
Q/Q |
Y/Y |
2003 |
Y/Y |
|
Net sales |
8,048 |
11.8% |
31.1% |
27,383 |
22.8% |
|
Gross profits |
1,361 |
2.8% |
158.7% |
4,149 |
98.7% |
|
Gross margins |
16.9% |
(1.5pp) |
8.3pp |
15.2% |
5.8pp |
|
Operating profits |
953 |
3.0% |
973.7% |
2,578 |
365.2% |
|
Net profits |
1,384 |
24.2% |
2693.0% |
2,842 |
568.3% |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2004.
|
SPIL: 2003 sales breakdown by applications | ||||
|
|
1Q |
2Q |
3Q |
4Q |
|
PC |
48% |
51% |
47% |
50% |
|
Communications |
19% |
21% |
22% |
20% |
|
Consumer |
16% |
14% |
16% |
17% |
|
Memory |
13% |
12% |
12% |
11% |
|
Other |
4% |
2% |
3% |
2% |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2004.
|
SPIL: 2003 sales breakdown by products | ||||
|
|
1Q |
2Q |
3Q |
4Q |
|
BGA |
38% |
44% |
43% |
45% |
|
QFP |
36% |
31% |
31% |
31% |
|
SOP |
13% |
11% |
12% |
10% |
|
Testing |
10% |
9% |
9% |
10% |
|
Others |
3% |
5% |
5% |
4% |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2004.
|
SPIL: 2004 capex budget (NT$b) | |
|
Amount |
Purpose |
|
5 |
Packaging capacity expansion |
|
2 |
Testing capacity expansion |
|
1 |
New facility in Taichung, Taiwan |
Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2004.
Article translated by Jack Lu and edited by Jack Lu
