Walton Advanced Engineering (WAE) has been speeding up adding testing equipment, and may raise its capex for 2010 as it is running at almost full capacity, according to the memory backend service provider. Walton's capex for the year currently stands at NT$3 billion (US$93.62 million), which will be mainly used to buy high-speed testers for DDR3 memory.
Walton president Yu Hong-chi noted that the company's major customers are shifting to 50nm-class processes, and some of them plan to conduct pilot runs using 40nm-class in the second quarter.
Walton currently houses a 60 million monthly DRAM packaging capacity, and expects to grow the number by 10-20 million units by year-end 2010, Yu said. The company also plans to add three to five more sets of high-speed testers for DDR3 chips, according to Yu, adding that it currently has 10 sets.
DDR3 memory will account for 50-60% of Walton's overall DRAM shipments in the second quarter, up from about 30% in the first, Yu said. The proportion is expected to reach 80-90% at the end of 2010, Yu said.
As to GDDR chips, Yu said the company currently has no plans to allocate capex to the segment. Walton is still in talks for potential orders, Yu noted.
Walton swung to net profits of NT$110 million in the fourth quarter of 2009, from losses of NT$127 million a year earlier. The earnings translated into a net EPS of NT$0.23, compared to a negative EPS of NT$0.25 in fourth-quarter 2008.
Elpida Memory, Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics are Winbond's major customers, according to previous reports.