With the outbreak of the pandemic known as COVID-19, Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain has provided major relief to the global electronics industry. Since Taiwan has done very well with preventing the spread of the epidemic, major IC packaging and testing players such as ASE and KYEC have taken advantage of the business opportunity, with orders transferred from overseas. Amongst these, KYEC has received transferred orders from a major US manufacturer of RFID components, which plans to transfer more than 60% of its production capacity for power amplifier (PA) from its Mexican plant to Taiwan. Thus KYEC is expected to be ready with sufficient production capacity from June to the first half of next year.

 

        Wu, Tian-Yu, the COO of ASE Group, has confirmed that since the pandemic in Taiwan has been controlled, many customers have redirected their orders to ASE, which is helping to exceed the forecast for ASE’s business performance in the second quarter. Although uncertainties such as the pandemic in the second half of the year, the Sino-US trade war, and geopolitical conflict remain, no one can forecast what the prospects will be. ASE is still optimistic that its operations will fare much better than that in the same period of the previous year.

 

        KYEC has also received a huge order from a major US manufacturer of RFID components, who plans to transfer more than 60% of its production capacity from its Mexican plant to Taiwan. This large American plant is a previous KYEC customer, and this US customer has already transferred one-fifth of its capacity from its Mexican plant to KYEC in June, and will subsequently gradually transfer more than 60% of its production capacity from the Mexican plant to KEYC.

 

          KYEC is now considering whether to abandon its capacity for Hisilicon of Huawei’s testing machines to support the order for this major American customer. However, HiSilicon has not yet determined if it will release its production capacity at KYEC, plus additional orders from MediaTek have been received, which has reduced KYEC’s production capacity.

 

 

        The market was originally worried that after HiSilicon was affected by the expansion of the ban by the US Department of Commerce, it would then impact KYEC’s follow-up order momentum. However, based on analysis by the Institute of Investors, it is believed the gap of the orders left behind by Hisilicon at KYEC will soon be filled up by transferred orders from major American manufacturers, additional production capacity desired from the further placement of the order by MediaTek, and the alliance Hisilicon is desperately seeking to establish with other IC design plants to break through the US blockade.

         The institute of investors predicts that KYEC will benefit from the transfer of orders from major US companies and the additional placement of an order from MediaTek. Additionally, KYEC has been striving to conduct shipment for base station chips of Hisilicon within the grace period, which should help the KYEC’s revenue achieve a record-high performance for a single season in the second and third quarter. (News source: Economic Daily News)