Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Jessie Shen

 

LCD driver IC packaging and testing houses Chipbond Technology and ChipMOS Technologies, in view of stagnant demand for LCD panels, expect their revenues for the third quarter of 2011 to remain flat or decrease by less than 5% as compared with the preceding quarter. Order visibility for the third quarter remains low, Chipbond said. The company had expected end-market demand would improve to buoy its June revenues, but the actual results came below the expectation.

Chipbond's consolidated revenues decreased 12.5% on month to NT$1.12 billion (US$39 million) in June. Consolidated sales for the second quarter grew 5.2% sequentially to NT$3.44 billion, showing a 5.2% increase sequentially. Chipbond previously estimated second-quarter sales would rise 5-10% on quarter.

ChipMOS indicated that judging from orders received so far for July, customers are tightly managing their inventories. The company has therefore adopted a cautious attitude toward the current quarter.

ChipMOS was able to run at full capacity in the first and second quarters as a result of its relatively small capacity compared to that of its rivals, the company noted. ChipMOS registered NT$1.53 billion in June consolidated revenues, down 6.5% on month. Consolidated revenues amounted to NT$4.67 billion in the second quarter, up 4.5% sequentially.

ChipMOS has forecast that its consolidated revenues for 2011 will rise 9.5% to about NT$16 billion. Sales for the first half of the year already reached more than 50% of the goal.