Wafer probing service providers King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC) and Ardentec have both reported slight decreases in October 2010 sales from the previous month.
KYEC turned in NT$1.16 billion (US$38 million) in October revenues, up 3.5% on year. But on a sequential basis, the figure showed the third consecutive month of declines.
KYEC's accumulated revenues from January through July were NT$12.09 billion, showing 45.8% growth from the same period of 2009.
KYEC has seen its customers - mainly Taiwan-based IC designers - slow down placing new orders in the fourth quarter. The company's capacity utilization rate has slid below 70%, with weak demand from the LCD driver IC and memory sectors.
Market watchers expect KYEC's fourth-quarter revenues to fall by around 10% sequentially.
Ardentec said that demand for logic chips has remained strong, and orders for mixed-signal ICs are warming up. However, demand coming from both the memory and large-size LCD driver IC sectors continue to be weak, the company indicated.
Ardentec registered consolidated revenues of NT$420 million in October, down 5.7% on month but up 15.8% on year. Consolidated sales for the first 10 months of 2010 amounted to NT$4.22 billion, rising 69.9% from a year ago.
Ardentec expects revenues for the fourth quarter to decrease by a single-digit rate as compared to the previous quarter.