The depreciation of the Taiwan dollar is expected to more than offset the extra costs from rising gold prices for Taiwan's packaging and testing houses who have high proportions of overseas clients, according to market watchers.
Packaging and testing houses with more foreign customers may see a 2-3% rise in sales and gross profits resulting from the exchange rate difference in the first quarter of 2009, the watchers said.
Material costs of packaging and testing companies have been rising due to increasing gold prices. But the Taiwan dollar has depreciated 5% since the beginning of this year, which is boosting the sales and margins for some of these companies.
Leading packaging and testing companies Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) are expected to see sales and margin growth in the first quarter thanks to the exchange rate difference. However, Taiwan companies which have higher proportions of local customers will not benefit much from it.
Article translated by Meiling Chen
