ASE's Q3 profit was NT$17.465 billion, a record high

On October 27th, ASE Semiconductor held a corporate briefing meeting. Benefiting from the fact that both the packaging and testing price and the utilization rate remained high, and the demand for entrusted manufacturing services (EMS) was better than expected, it announced that the company's net profit after tax in the third quarter reached 17.465 billion yuan. New Taiwan dollar (the same unit below), a record high.

Data show that the consolidated revenue of ASE Semiconductor in the third quarter was 188.626 billion yuan, a record high, with a quarterly increase of 18% and an annual increase of 25%. Among them, the combined revenue of packaging and testing business reached 98.831 billion yuan, a quarterly increase of 4.0% and an annual increase of 10%; the gross profit margin was 29.2%, the same as the previous quarter. Operating profit reached 18.663 billion yuan, a quarterly increase of 3.7% and an annual increase of 19.4%. The quarterly revenue and operating profit of the packaging and testing business also hit record highs.

Dong Hongsi, chief financial officer of ASE Semiconductor, said that the utilization rate of packaging and testing capacity in the third quarter was about 80%, and the utilization rate of both fell to 75-80% in the fourth quarter. Among them, the utilization rate of advanced packaging was slightly higher than that of production capacity. For line packaging, gross profit margin also declined following the cooling of the overall utilization rate.

In addition, due to the adjustment of semiconductor inventory, ASE’s capital expenditure this year will be revised down by 10%, which is basically the same as last year.

Looking forward to this quarter, ASE expects that the gross profit margin of packaging and testing business will be slightly lower than that in the first quarter of this year, and the operating profit margin of electronic foundry services will be close to the level of the same period last year.

Looking forward to next year's operation, Dong Hongsi expects that the overall market situation will slow down next year, and the packaging and testing business next year will be flat compared to this year, which can still outperform other businesses. He predicts that the first quarter of next year will continue to be strong in automotive and Netcom applications, but the adjustment and correction of industrial inventory will continue into the first half of next year.