Powertech Technology Incorporated (PTI) and Walton Advanced Engineering have both seen order visibility extend to September, and their orders have seen no sign of decrease, according to the companies. These major memory backend service providers are speeding up their capacity expansions.
PTI, who mainly provides DRAM backend services for Elpida Memory and Rexchip Electronics, has said its utilization rate for the memory segment stays high at 90-95%. The company revealed DDR3 accounted for 70% of the company's total DRAM chip shipments in the first quarter. The proportion is likely to reach 80% at the end of the second quarter.
PTI said at its most recent investors conference that 2010 capex is estimated at NT$9 billion, of which NT$6 billion will go towards capacity expansions and the reminder for factory construction. The company noted it has stepped up investment in high-speed testers for DDR3 chips and NAND flash chip capacity expansions.
PTI also looks to diversify its product mix by developing its non-memory segment such as SiP and 3D IC packaging, according to the company.
PTI last year took over Spansion's facility in Suzhou, China. It issued a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) earlier this month announcing it has bought a factory building located in Hsinchu, Taiwan from Kingston Technology for NT$1.178 billion.
PTI's newly-acquired real estate was formerly owned by ProMOS Technologies, which used it as collateral for debts owed to Kingston.
Walton has announced plans to acquire a LCD module (LCM) plant from HannStar Display for NT$415 million, and raise its capex budget for this year to NT$5 billion. The facility will be converted to produce DDR3 chips, and is expected to come on line in the fourth quarter.
Walton, whose major customers include Elpida and Winbond Electronics, has revealed DDR3 will account for more than half of its overall DRAM shipments in the second quarter. Walton's revenues for the first quarter totaled NT$1.6 billion, up 51.6% from 2009.
In other news, peer Formosa Advanced Technologies Company (FATC) has announced revenues through March grew 90% on year to NT$2.85 billion. FATC mainly fulfills orders placed by Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories, and has recently grabbed orders from Micron Technology, according to industry sources.