Taiwan-based memory packaging and testing service provider Walton Advanced Engineering (WAE) saw specialty DRAM packaging/testing services account for 74% of its second-quarter 2013 consolidated revenues and expects the proportion to rise to 80% by the end of the year, according to company president John Yu.
The NAND flash and commodity DRAM segments are expected to each take up 10% of consolidated revenues by the end of 2013, Yu said. The increasing revenue proportion for specialty DRAM is mainly due to growing demand for mobile RAM used in entry-level and mid-range smartphones in second-half 2013, Yu said.
WAE consecutively hit record monthly consolidated revenues at NT$801.6 million (US$26.8 million) in July and NT$803.7 million in August. It is expected to generate NT$2.4 billion in consolidated revenues for the third quarter, market analysts said.
With a capex budget of NT$2 billion for 2013, WAE has completed packaging/testing capacity expansion and will gradually ramp up the new capacity in the third quarter, the analysts indicated.
Toshiba will start NAND flash production at its new factory in central Japan in 2014 and may release packaging/testing orders to WAE, which has been competing for new orders from Toshiba, the analysts said.