Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) will continue expanding production capacity at its 8-inch fabs, and is still evaluating the feasibility of building 12-inch production lines, according to the specialty IC foundry.
VIS will continue building additional capacity at its existing three 8-inch wafer plants, said company chairman Leuh Fang, adding that it also does not rule out constructing a new 12-inch fab to meet robust customer demand.
Demand for fingerprint sensors and power management chips has been strong, while orders for LCD driver ICs remain stable, Fang indicated.
VIS has seen its fabs run at full utilization rates, Fang noted. The foundry expects to post revenue growth of 4-11% sequentially in the second quarter.
VIS announced earnings per share of NT$0.70 (US$0.02) for the first quarter of 2018. Net profits for the quarter climbed 5.7% sequentially to NT$1.15 billion.
VIS reported revenues grew 0.8% on quarter and 2.6% from a year earlier to NT$6.43 billion in the first quarter of 2018, which came within the company's guidance range. Gross margin for the quarter came to 32.2%, which also met the company's estimate of 31-33%.
Growing revenues generated from orders for large-size, and small- and medium-size panel driver ICs led to the particularly strong first quarter, VIS said. The foundry shipped a total of about 548,000 8-inch wafers in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the 541,000 units shipped in the prior quarter and 507,000 units a year ago.
VIS expects to post revenues of between NT$6.7 billion and NT$7.1 billion in the second quarter of 2018, with a gross margin of 31.5% to 33.5%.
In addition, VIS disclosed capex for 2018 will increase to NT$2.1 billion from NT$1.8 billion in 2017. The planned capex exclude expenses related to new fab construction and/or fab acquisitions.
VIS enjoys particularly strong 1Q18
Photo: Monica Chen, Digitimes, May 2018
Article translated by Jessie Shen
