Taiwan-based diode maker Eris Technology has landed orders enough to keep its production lines for consumer diodes, automotive diodes, and protective components running at full capacity throughout second-quarter 2021, according to company chairman Jonthan Chang.
Chang noted that judging from the orders received by his company in fourth-quarter 2020 through second-quarter 2021, which are more than twice those a year earlier, Eris' revenues for this year may improve sharply from last year.
Chang stressed that keen price competition for consumer diodes will not continue this year due to strong application demand for displays, game consoles, and notebooks supporting remote work and study.
He continued first-tier international diode suppliers have seen their delivery lead time extended due to tight capacity, promising good opportunities Taiwanese vendors to tap deeper into the market.
Chang also noted that Eris will take over all automotive diode production equipment from Lite-On Semiconductor in third-quarter 2021 and will complete validations at automotive clients in the first half of the year, which will drastically strengthen its offerings for automotive applications.
Chang continued that Eris will step up automating its production lines, aiming to cut its labor cost by at least 15% by the end of June, and will also expand capacity by 30% in second-half 2021 and enforce another 30-50% expansion in 2022.
Chang said Eris has moved to adopt in 2021 the 5-inch GPP (glass passivation pellet) manufacturing process newly developed by its subsidiary Yea-Shin Technology, so as to reduce diode wafer procurement costs, boost gross margins and profitability in the next two years.
Industry sources said Eris has penetrated its diodes for timing controllers into the supply chains of leading Chinese panel makers, and is set to raise its quotes later in February.
Article translated by Willis Ke
