Taipei, March 28, 2008 (CENS)--With market demand for IC (integrated circuit) chips for consumer electronics gradually recovering strength, Taiwan`s IC designers are looking forward to better times in the second quarter of this year, according to industry sources.

Taiwan`s major IC designers and chipmakers, including PixArt Imaging Inc., Weltrend Semiconductor Inc., Mediatek Inc., Sunplus Technology Co., Faraday Technology Corp. and 3Cnet Informatics Inc., have landed orders to keep production booked till the end of the second quarter.

IC developers have been swept by a seasonal downturn in the first quarter when their shipment of consumer ICs, LCD (liquid crystal display) driver ICs and IC chips for mobile phones have significantly retreated, except for network ICs and IC chipsets. Furthermore, appreciation of New Taiwan dollar against greenback has pushed down on average sales revenue by 15% for the quarter from the one earlier. Of course, their gross profit rates have dropped by between three and five percentage points in the quarter.

However, the sector appears to be recovering from the recession starting the second quarter as market demand for consumer ICs for game consoles, digital TVs and digital cameras and LCD driver ICs has been climbing, according to industry insiders.

In the segment of TV game consoles, PixArt has seen its shipment of CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) ICs for Nintendo`s Wii remotes grow and need for the models is expected to remain in the second half of this year because the firm had already cleared inventories in the fourth quarter of last year. Institutional investors project the firm`s sales revenue to return to NT$400 million by March and to keep growing in April.

Also benefiting from growing shipment of analog ICs for TV game consoles, coupled with newly added orders for digital TV remote ICs from two Korean makers of household electronics, Weltrend has attained single-month overall shipment of 1.5 million units and is expected to post sales revenue of over NT$200 million in both March and April.

Sunplus, a seasoned, large-sized IC designer in Taiwan, has also enjoyed strong shipment of ICs for digital TVs, with more than 300,000 units for the first quarter, and consumer ICs for use in Beijing Olympic Games. Institutional investors estimate the firm`s Mach revenue to reach NT$600 million and, either April or May revenue to possibly beat NT$700 million.

Thanks to simmering demand of Samsung and Philips for ICs for digital TVs in the North American market, Mediatek, Taiwan`s No. 1 supplier in the sector, will most likely keep boosting its sales revenue in April and May.

In the meantime, display panel makers` increasing shipment is indicative of greater demand for related ICs, such as T-CON ICs (time controllers). 3Cnet, Faraday and Novatek Microelectronics Co. have all seen apparent increases in shipment in March and April. Faraday is even poised to achieve a sharp growth of over 30% in annual revenue this year as the firm has reportedly joined supply chain of a Korean maker of large panels.




(by Steve Chuang)