Jessie Shen

 

LCD driver IC packaging and testing house ChipMOS Technologies expects revenues to stay flat or decrease by single digits sequentially in the third quarter of 2011. Gross margin on a consolidated basis for the quarter is esimated at 4-9%,

"We entered the third quarter with a conservative outlook based on softening near-term demand trends consistent with the broader semiconductor industry," said ChipMOS chairman and CEO SJ Cheng in a statement. "We expect the demand stability in our LCD driver business will partially offset anticipated macro weakness in the niche/mobile DRAM, flash and mixed-signal segments from inventory adjustment."

Cheng previously remarked that ChipMOS is looking to gradually phase out its DRAM packaging and testing business, and concentrate on backend services for LCD driver ICs and flash products.

ChipMOS announced that net sales on a US GAAP basis grew 4.5% sequentially and 3.8% from a year earlier to NT$4.67 billion (US$162.2 million) in the second quarter of 2011. However, the company reported net losses of NT$4.1 million for the quarter.

Second-quarter net losses showed improvement compared to losses of NT$118.7 million in the first quarter and losses of NT$49.7 million in the second quarter of 2010. Gross margin for the second quarter climbed to 10.3% from 7.6% in the first quarter and 5.2% in second-quarter 2010.

"The ongoing diversification of our customer base and target markets helped to minimize the impact of current volatility being experienced by many in our industry," Cheng continued. "Growth in our testing and assembly services for flash and mixed-signal products as well as our LCDD driver business, including gold bumping, was led by increased demand in mobile touch
devices, including tablet computers and smartphones."

In addition, Cheng revealed that sales of ChipMOS's 12-inch wafer gold bumping services will start contributing to company revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011.