November sales of Siliconware Precision Inudstry (SPIL) and Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board (NPC) declined significantly because of order shrinkage since the end of October, and market watchers expect demand to continue to be weak in the first quarter of 2009.
Packaging and testing company SPIL has reported November sales of NT$4.23 billion (US$126.33 billion), down 24.08% from October and lower than the market's expectation. SPIL earlier adjusted its fourth-quarter sales forecast to 25-28% decline.
Impacted by order reductions from upstream companies, November sales of IC substrate maker NPC were only NT$2.47 billion, down 29.8% sequentially and down 36.93% on year. Investors expect NPC to have 15-25% sales decline in the fourth quarter in line with their estimations for the overall PCB industry.
According to market watchers, sales of packaging and testing supply chain will be even worse in December and will remain weak in the first quarter of 2009. Utilization rates are expected to drop to 60%, and companies may see losses or only small profits.
Article translated by Meiling Chen
