Mark LaPedus
EE Times
(05/07/2010 7:22 EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In 2009, business was horrible in the IC-assembly and packaging arena.

The sector was hit hard by the recession. Most vendors lost money. ASE remained the leader in share in 2009, followed by Amkor, SPIL, and STATS ChipPAC.

Now, business is booming thanks to the upturn. In fact, many vendors are at or near capacity. ''Utilization rate is full," according to Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), during a recent conference call.

ASE, Amkor, SPIL, STATS ChipPAC and others had a banner Q1. ASE posted sales of NT$14.663 billion ($462.8 million) for April, down 7.5 percent from March but up 139.8 percent from a year ago.

This week, another vendor, Malaysia's Unisem Berhad, announced results for the first quarter ended March 31. The group recorded revenue of RM329.3 million ($100.7 million) for Q1, up 82.2 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

For the current quarter, the group achieved net profit of RM41.3 million ($12.6 million) compared to net loss of RM23.4 million ($7.2 million) in the same quarter in 2009.

Equipment capacity utilization averaged at about 74 percent for the group in Q1. In a statement, John Chia Sin Tet, group managing director for Unisem, said: "The group saw a strong first quarter performance in its business as opposed to a normally subdued first quarter following a seasonally strong fourth quarter."