Tekcore - taiwanesischer LED-Player - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[R-BgO]

Tekcore to expand LED epitaxial wafer capacity by 30-50% in 2011


Siu Han, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 27 April 2011]

Tekcore will expand its wafer production capacity by 30-50% in 2011, with MOCVD equipment to increase from 50 sets in the first quarter of 2011 to 66 at the end of the year, according to the company.

Tekcore extended its production from 2-inch LED epitaxial wafers to 4-inch in the second half of 2010 and has 3-5 MOCVD sets using 4-inch wafers currently. All of the 16 sets to be added will be for production of 4-inch wafers. Production costs of LED chips from 4-inch wafers is 30% lower than that from 2-inch wafers at comparable yields, Tekcore pointed out. Tekcore's monthly production capacity of 4-inch wafers will be hiked from 2,800 units currently to 10,900 units at the end of 2011.

Tekcore expects prices for sapphire wafer substrates to drop from US$27-30 in the first quarter of 2011 to US$25 in the second quarter.

The proportion of total revenues of clients in South Korea and Japan will increase from 20% in the first quarter to 40-50% in the second, while that of Taiwan-based clients will decrease from 62% to 20-30%, Tekcore indicated.

Tekcore's production capacity for LED backlight applications has been booked up until the third quarter of 2011, the company said. Tekcore expects its 2011 revenues to grow 50% from NT$2.436 billion (US$78.6 million) posted in 2010, with backlight and lighting applications accounting for 40% and 25% respectively.

[R-BgO]

Tekcore sees 1Q11 loss despite increased revenues


Siu Han, Taipei; Jackie Chang, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 4 May 2011]

Taiwan-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Tekcore saw first-quarter 2011 revenues of NT$744 million (US$25 million), a growth of 28% sequentially and 53% on year. However, Tekcore suffered a gross loss of NT$7.2 million, with a net operating loss of NT$98 million and a net loss of NT$88 million. The losses were mainly because of decreased shipments and low yields for LED chips used in TV BLUs.

After the announcements of disappointing financial performances by Huga Optotech and Lextar Electronics, Tekcore also reported gross loss higher than market expectations. Despite on-year revenue growth of 53%, the quarterly gross margin turned to negative 0.97%. Earnings per share (EPS) was negative NT$0.32, the worst among peers.

Taiwan-based LED packaging house, Ledtech Electronics, also reported financial performance for first-quarter 2011 recently with quarterly gross margin of 20% and EPS of NT$0.15. Ledtech stated optimistic view for April revenues as orders have begun to return. Everlight, the leader of LED packaging houses in Taiwan, reported EPS of NT$1.05 and gross margin returned to 25% for first-quarter 2011, the best among peers.

Across the supply chain, the upstream firms performed worse than the downstream firms.

According to Tekcore, the shipments and yields are both expected to increase for the second quarter. In addition, the average selling price (ASP) for components has been stable, which hopefully will help to improve second quarter's performance.

Recently the buzz of the industry has been on reelections of the boards of directors for Tekcore, Epistar and Everlight. Tekcore stated the election will not be held in the shareholders meeting slated for June 28, but an extraordinary shareholders meeting will be held later - July at the earliest - to reelect its board.