KUCHING: In the semiconductor sector, Intel Corporation (Intel) reported its first quarters for financial year 2010 revenue of US$10.3 billion and earnings of US$2.4 billion on the back of stronger-than-expected demand for microprocessors arising from the sale of notebooks and network servers.
STRONGER COMEBACK: The semiconductor sector is poised for a stronger recovery in 2010 given a stronger demand outlook.
According to RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd (RHB Research), Intel’s second to third quarter financial year 2010 earnings would remain strong.
It added that this would be driven by notebook and netbook sales from emerging markets such as China and India, underpinned by the rising consumer spending as well as resilient corporate information technology capital expenditure.
Major Japanese liquid crystal display televisions (LCD TV) producers such as Sharp Corporation and Panasonic Malaysia were expected to ramp up their output significantly in 2010, said RHB Research, given the sharp recovery in flat-screen television demand as well as the launch of 3D TV in a major way.
The research firm believed that panel producers were targeting more mature markets such as United States, Europe and Japan for the higher end 3D TV as discount brands continued to eat away market share for normal panels where profit had been sapped by price declines.
It additionally noted that the average selling prices for the chips would remain resilient given tight chips supply amidst slow ramp-ups in subcontracting, assembly, testing and services capacity and tight inventory management by chip suppliers.
The research report highlighted that dynamic random access memory chips prices were up by a stronger 16 to 21 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 respectively driven by the foundries’ tight capacity and stronger demand from the personal computer section.
It believed that Unisem (M) Bhd and Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd share prices would likely be driven by stronger than expected earnings from technology giants such as IBM Corporation, Apple Computers Inc and Cisco Systems Inc.
RHB Research concluded that the semiconductor sector was poised for a stronger recovery in 2010 given a stronger demand outlook.