IC packager Silicon Precision Industries (SPIL) has reported NT$1.17 billion (US$39.7 million) in net profits for the fourth quarter of 2011, up 5.2% from a year earlier, with revenues increasing 1.5% to NT$15.71 billion. Net profits for all of 2011 amounted to NT$4.84 billion, however, still showing a decrease compared to the NT$5.63 billion registered in 2010.
SPIL's EPS for 2011 came to NT$1.55, down from NT$1.80 in 2010, according to company data.
On a sequential basis, SPIL's net profits for the fourth quarter were about 20% lower than profits of NT$1.47 billion in the third quarter, with revenues down 3.8%. Despite the on-quarter decreases in revenues and profits, SPIL's gross margin for the fourth quarter climbed to 16% from 15.2% in the prior quarter.
Fourth-quarter gross margin in 2011 also showed significant improvement compared to the 13.8% posted during the same period of 2010. NT dollar depreciation and declining gold prices are seen as the contributing factors for the higher gross margin.
SPIL revealed in its financial report that its raw material costs totaled about NT$7.02 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, or 44.7% of total net revenues. The costs were NT$7.57 billion, or 46.4% of company revenues in the third quarter.
In the meantime, a weaker NT dollar allowed the firm to realize a NT$45 million currency exchange gain in the fourth quarter, SPIL added.
In addition, SPIL disclosed that sales generated from copper-wire bonding accounted for 29.5% of the company's overall wire bonding revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 28.2% in the previous quarter and 15.7% a year ago.
Fellow packaging firm Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) has also generated more sales from copper-wire bonding. The firm indicated recently that sales from copper bonding reached US$785 million in 2011, up significantly from US$307 million in 2010.