IC packaging and testing service provider Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) plans to set aside a capital expenditure budget of NT$12 billion (US$396 million) for 2015, decreasing by 22.1% on year, according to company chairman Bough Lin at an October 27 investors conference.

While growth in global demand for tablets and smartphones has been slowing down, wearable devices and IoT (the Internet of Things) applications are expected to boost business growth for semiconductor industries in 2015, Lin said.

Of consolidated revenues of NT$21.652 billion for the third quarter of 2014, 49% came from North America, 39% from Asia except Japan, 11% from Europe and 1% from Japan. In terms of application of ICs, communication accounted for 6% of the consolidated revenues, consumer electronics for 23%, computing for 12% and memory for 4%. Bumping and flip chip packaging accounted for 39% of the consolidated revenues, substrate-based packaging for 30%, lead frame-based packaging for 19% and testing for 12%.

SPIL's production capacity in the third quarter consisted of 7,390 wire bonders, monthly bumping packaging equivalent to 84,000 8-inch wafers and 102,000 12-inch units, monthly flip-chip BGA packaging of 28.0 million chips, monthly flip-chip CSP (chip-scale packaging) of 79.0 million chips, monthly wafer-level CSP of 120.0 million chips, SiP (system in package) of 3.0 million chips and 483 testers.

For operation in the fourth quarter of 2014, SPIL expects consolidated revenues of NT$19.7-21.0 billion, gross margin of 23.0-25.0%, net operating margin of 14.0-16.0%, wire-bonding packaging capacity utilization of 76-80%, flip-chip packaging capacity utilization of 78-82% and testing capacity utilization of 80-84%.