Merrill Lynch Expects Strong 3Q from ASE
Amy Lee, Taipei; Esther Lam, DigiTimes.com [Friday 4 June 2004]
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) may see its third quarter revenues increase 10% on-quarter, fueled by strong demand from the communications and consumer sectors, investment firm Merrill Lynch forecasted in a report.
Orders from Motorola are stable while those from Qualcomm are expected to gain momentum, the report indicated. These two companies may have begun test producing handset solutions using ASE’s system in package (SIP) technology, as reported on February 25.
For the consumer sector, Merrill Lynch believes that Agilent Technologies, a key contributor to ASE’s revenues, will continue placing more orders for CMOS image sensor packaging to ASE through year-end.
For PCs, Merrill Lynch expects orders for logic chipsets and graphics chips to pick up due to seasonality and new launches of PCI-express-based products. New PCI-express-based chipsets from VIA Technology seems to have gained popularity among the motherboard makers. Nvidia and ATI Technologies should also begin mass shipment of graphics chips built upon PCI-express architecture by late July, according to the report.
In related news, ASE on June 3 announced that it completed the acquisition of a packaging and testing facility in Takahata, Yamagata from NEC Electronics Corporation. ASE will provide a four-year testing and packaging services for the Japanese company and ASE expects to generate revenues of US$165 million in the next twelve months.
ASE: May 2003 - April 2004 revenues (NT$m)
Month
Sales
M/M
Y/Y
YTD
Y/Y
Apr-04
2,983
-6.3%
26.3%
11,867
32.1%
Mar-04
3,182
6.1%
41%
8,884
34.3%
Feb-04
3,000
11%
44%
5,702
30.7%
Jan-04
2,702
-21.4%
18.7%
2,702
18.7%
Dec-03
3,436
1.1%
46.6%
31,493
22.9%
Nov-03
3,400
6.1%
39.5%
28,056
20.5%
Oct-03
3,205
9.1%
33.5%
24,656
18.2%
Sep-03
2,938
11.4%
39.7%
21,451
16.2%
Aug-03
2,637
9.3%
20.5%
18,514
13.2%
Jul-03
2,413
6.1%
13.7%
15,877
12.1%
Jun-03
2,274
2.6%
18.7%
13,472
11.7%
May-03
2,217
-6.2%
16.5%
11,198
10.3%
Source: TSE, compiled by DigiTimes, June 2004.
*Figures are not consolidated.
ASE: 2Q 2003 - 1Q 2004 revenues (NT$m)
Quarter
Sales
Q/Q
Y/Y
YTD
Y/Y
1Q-04
8,884
-11.5%
34.3%
8,884
34.3%
4Q-03
10,036
25.7%
39.8%
31,488
22.9%
3Q-03
7,988
16.7%
24.6%
21,451
16.2%
2Q-03
6,846
3.5%
14.1%
13,464
11.8%
Source: TSE, compiled by DigiTimes, June 2004.
*Figures are not consolidated.
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