A surge in orders for Huawei's new smartphones and 5G base stations boosted March revenues at several Taiwan-based ecosystem partners, such as backend firm King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) and wafer probe card specialist Chunghwa Precision Test Tech (CHPT), market observers believe.
Huawei has stepped up its pace of orders for smartphone and 5G base station chips, according to the observers. HiSilicon, Huawei's fabless design subsidiary, has actually moved to build up inventories in advance as it is gearing up to support its parent company's ambitions in the upcoming 5G era, the observers indicated.
Taiwan-based firms engaged in the supply chain of Huawei and HiSilicon started seeing revenues pick up in March, said the observers, adding that orders for Huawei devices could play a key driver of some Taiwan-based firms' revenue growth in 2019.
Both KYEC and CHPT have both declined to comment on specific customers or orders.
KYEC and CHPT reported sequential increases in March consolidated revenues of 14.2% and 32%, respectively. KYEC's revenues for the first quarter of 2019 came to NT$5.26 billion (US$170.6 million), down 7.3% on quarter but up 14.8% on year. First-quarter revenues at CHPT decreased 16% sequentially and 18.25% on year to each NT$606 million.
Win Semiconductors, which provides foundry services for VCSEL components for use in 3D sensor structured light and time of flight (ToF) solutions, has reportedly cut into the supply chain for Huawei's new smartphones designed for launch this year. Win Semi, along with its epitaxial wafer supplier Visual Photonics Epitaxy Company (VPEC), both saw their March revenues pick up.
Win Semi's consolidated revenues grew 13.2% sequentially to NT$1.25 billion in March, while VPEC's revenues climbed about 40% on month to NT$192 million.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
