UMS Holdings

[a74henry]

From AR 2012

page 6:

“In mid-2012, UMS inked a long-term agreement with its major customer to continue delivering and supporting the customer’s semiconductor systems for the subsequent 5
years. This move provided UMS with a level of certainty and stability as it seeks to streamline the Group’s manufacturing operations and raise its productivity

page 8 :

“For FY2012, UMS’ gross material margin declined to 49% from 56% in FY2011 mainly due to lower margin in 4Q2012, which was partly due to UMS extending price discounts on some product lines. ………………….

Page 9 :

“Nonetheless, a near term upturn in sentiment has been noted for the first few months of 2013. The Group’s key customer had revised their forecast upwards, with revenue growth in the region of 15-25% sequentially for the first few months of 2013. For the rest of the year, the semiconductor market is expected to be driven by demand for mobile products such as smart phones and tablets, spurring investments in semiconductor equipment.

Comments:
Interestingly, the 5 years contract extension was inked in mid-2012 but the lower margin (due to discount given) happened in 4Q2012 – still couldn’t tell if the discount was one-off or permanent. Nonetheless, the management is upbeat on prospect for 2013.

(Vested)

U can always ask the management if the discount was one-off or permanent during the AGM.

[KopiKat]

Taiwan chipmakers TSMC, UMC sales rise in first quarter

[Boon]

Memory, Foundry, and LED Markets Drive Fab Spending in Southeast Asia

SINGAPORE — April 10, 2013 — Increased spending in NAND and flash by Micron, LEDs by Philips and Osram, and continued investments by GLOBALFOUNDRIES will create new opportunities for equipment and materials suppliers in Southeast Asia. These trends will be explored at the upcoming SEMIcon Singapore 2013 which will take place May 7-9 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Center. With a focus on new technologies and products for advanced IC packaging, test, and fab efficiency, as well as in new application areas including LEDs and MEMS, the event capitalizes on Southeast Asia’s strong contribution to the global semiconductor market.

For the Southeast Asia region, capital equipment investment will see some pickup in the second half of 2013 followed by a strong recovery in 2014. Overall front-end fab equipment spending is expected to double next year from $810 million in 2013 to $1.62 billion in 2014. Foundry and Memory are the two major sectors that invest most in the region. The GLOBALFOUNDRIES expansion plan at Fab 7 will be completed by mid-2014 while UMC continues to upgrade their Fab 12i capacity to 40nm process.

The Southeast Asia region’s capacity growth for front-end fabs shows two percent increase this year and an expectation of higher growth, eight percent, in 2014, exceeding overall global capacity growth of five percent according to the SEMI World Fab Forecast. The growth will mainly be driven by memory sector, specifically from NAND flash capacity as Micron gears up for further expansion at its Singapore NAND flash facility next year plus ongoing capacity conversion from DRAM to NAND flash at Fab 7 (Tech). Singapore is emerging to become the third largest NAND flash manufacturing country in the world by the end of 2014. The conversion and the expansion projects will drive related semiconductor investment in the region in 2013 and 2014.

For the assembly and test sector, Southeast Asia has long been the focal point of the industry with a large installed capacity from both IDMs and OSATs. This position contributes to the region being the largest packaging materials consumption market in the world, representing a market size of $6.6 billion in 2013 and $6.8 billion in 2014. The region’s back-end equipment investment remain significant with over $1 billion spending each year throughout 2012 to 2014, accounting for about 17% of worldwide share according to SEMI’s WWSEMS.

Aside from manufacturing capacity, Southeast Asia region is now extending its value proposition to IC design and R&D areas with more joint development projects between multi-national corporations (MNC) and local institutes. SEMI expects to see a more robust semiconductor ecosystem arise from the region as a result of these endeavors and as companies seek ready access to customers throughout Asia-Pacific and South Asia.

Currently, Singapore has 14 wafer fabrication plants, including the world’s top three wafer foundries. Singapore also has 20 semiconductor assembly and test operations, including three of the world’s top six outsourced assembly and test companies. There are about 40 IC design centers, which comprise nine of the world’s “top 10” fabless IC design companies.

SEMIcon Singapore, in its 20th year, will feature over 40 programs and forums to highlight the industry’s major technology trends, and investment and expansion opportunities in manufacturing. Forum themes include: Market Trends Briefing, Lithography Technology, Assembly Packaging Technology, 2.5D/3D-IC, LED Manufacturing Technology, Product Test, and MEMS. Attendees can save up to 30 percent on programs by registering before April 15.

Other special programs include a job fair, a SEMIcon University Program, and both an OEM Sourcing Program ad a Suppliers Search Program. These programs demonstrate SEMI Singapore’s commitment to connecting the global semiconductor manufacturers to Singapore-based resources and professions.

SEMIcon Singapore connects businesses to customers in Southeast Asia by demonstrating their innovation and technology leadership, building customer relationships, and helping companies gain competitive advantage and reinforce market positioning. SEMIcon Singapore is where companies can reinforce market position and leadership within the region.

http://www.semi.org/en/node/45351?id=highlights

[a74henry]

Singapore has to make it more attractive for semicon giants to set up their foundries and R&D here.

EDB got to work harder. Perhaps, give incentives to develop the whole cluster and supporting industries like what the Govt announced for the shipping industry.

[Nick]

Here is the Annual Report for 2012

http://info.sgx.com/listprosp.nsf/AllAnn...endocument

At pg 41 of the Annual Report, an interesting piece of information is revealed regarding the IMT Group performance:

On 14 and 17 February 2012, the Group acquired equity interests of 100% in Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Inc (“IMT-USA”) and Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Pte Ltd (“IMT-S”) for a purchase consideration of S$8,196,626 and S$19,803,374 respectively.

From the date of acquisitions, IMT-USA and IMT-S contributed total revenue of approximately S$11,658,000 and profit for the year of approximately S$6,225,000 to the Group’s result. If the acquisitions had occurred on 1 January 2012, the contributed revenue would have been S$13,417,000 and the profit for the year would have been S$ 6,011,000.

(Vested)

[NTL]

Here is the Annual Report for 2012

http://info.sgx.com/listprosp.nsf/AllAnn...endocument

At pg 41 of the Annual Report, an interesting piece of information is revealed regarding the IMT Group performance:

On 14 and 17 February 2012, the Group acquired equity interests of 100% in Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Inc (“IMT-USA”) and Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Pte Ltd (“IMT-S”) for a purchase consideration of S$8,196,626 and S$19,803,374 respectively.

From the date of acquisitions, IMT-USA and IMT-S contributed total revenue of approximately S$11,658,000 and profit for the year of approximately S$6,225,000 to the Group’s result. If the acquisitions had occurred on 1 January 2012, the contributed revenue would have been S$13,417,000 and the profit for the year would have been S$ 6,011,000.

(Vested)

Hi Nick, why would whole year profit will be lower than part-of? They are having some major expenses in Jan? Any idea?

[Drizzt]

this profit look signficant consider its not cash flow and consider that is equivalent to almost half a year of dividend.

[Boon]

TSMC 16nm FinFET to enter mass production within one year after 20nm ramp-up, says Chang

Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Thursday 18 April 2013]

TSMC's 16nm FinFET process will enter mass production in less than one year after ramping up production of 20nm chips, company chairman and CEO Morris Chang said at an investors meeting today (April 18).

Chang indicated that TSMC already moved its 20nm process to risk production in the first quarter of 2013. As for 16nm FinFET, the node will be ready for risk production by the year-end, Chang said.

While stepping up efforts to bring newer nodes online, TSMC has revised upward its 2013 capex to US$9.5-10 billion. The foundry previously set capex for the year at US$9 billion.

In addition, Chang reiterated his previous remark that production of TSMC's 28nm wafers and revenues generated from the process in 2013 will triple those of 2012. The node technology will continue to play the major driver of TSMC's revenue growth in 2013, said Chang, adding that the foundry's share of the 28nm foundry market will remain high this year.

TSMC reported better-than-expected financial results for the first quarter of 2013, with consolidated sales and net profits rising 25.7% and 18.2%, respectively, from a year ago. Company CFO Lora Ho credited the positive performance to favorable exchange rates, strong demand for mobile-related applications and TSMC's strength in 28nm process technology.

TSMC announced net profits of NT$39.58 billion (US$1.32 billion) on consolidated revenues of NT$132.76 billion for the first quarter of 2013. Net EPS for the quarter came to NT$1.53.

"We expect the strong mobile demand, especially in emerging markets, to continue in the second quarter," Ho indicated. TSMC expects to post sales growth of about 17% sequentially in the second quarter to between NT$154 billion and NT$156 billion.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130418VL200.html

(Vested)

[Boon]

North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts March 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.14

http://www.semi.org/en/node/45386?id=highlights

(Vested)

[Nick]

North American Semiconductor Equipment Industry Posts March 2013 Book-to-Bill Ratio of 1.14

http://www.semi.org/en/node/45386?id=highlights

(Vested)

This is certainly good news though a far cry from the 3M Bookings of US$4 - 5 billion for much of 2010 and 1H 2011. I suspect we will see a slight recovery in 1Q 13 revenue though the issue of margin compression remains to be resolved. The 1.0 cents quarterly dividend should be maintained barring unforeseen circumstances. UMS have been closing higher recently and is trading at 47.5 cents currently.

(Vested)