Chip packaging and testing company Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) expects shipments to grow by 11-13% sequentially in the second quarter of 2010, driven particularly by demand for chips used in communications devices, according to company spokesperson Joseph Tung. Tung said the company's overall ASP for the quarter will stay flat from the first quarter, though it is seeing tight capacity.
ASE's second-quarter gross margin may top 25%, returning to the level it achieved in the third quarter of 2009, Tung indicated. ASE saw gross margin slide 1.6pp to 23.5% in the first quarter, mainly due to rising gold prices and a stronger NT dollar.
Tung also revealed ASE saw sales generated from copper wire bonding account for 6% of its total packaging revenues in the first quarter. By the end of 2010, the copper segment is expected to account for 30% of its total wire bonding revenues, or 20% of its overall revenues, Tung added.
ASE's yield rate for its copper wirebonding process is now mature, according to company chairman Jason Chang. Chang said the company looks to adopt copper processing for all of its wirebonding production over the next two to three years.
ASE has set a capex goal of US$450-500 million for 2010. It is expanding copper wire bonding equipment, and plans to grow the number of its copper wirebonders to 3,000 units by the end of the year.
In other news, ASE has acquired a factory building located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from PCB maker Wus Printed Circuit for NT$472.5 million, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).
