UWC to ride on strong chip demand

The ongoing trade intensity may also eventually benefit UWC, which provides a one-stop solution, as more companies shift production out of China to avoid import tariffs. UWC is an integrated engineering support service provider.

PETALING JAYA: UWC Bhd’s outlook remains robust on the back of strong semiconductor orders.

The ongoing trade intensity may also eventually benefit UWC, which provides a one-stop solution, as more companies shift production out of China to avoid import tariffs.

UWC is an integrated engineering support service provider.

It is planning to develop its newly-acquired 48ha leasehold land into a production base over the next three years to help overcome capacity constraints at its existing Batu Kawan facility.

Hong Leong Investment Bank Research (HLIB), in a report, said that with semiconductor orders expected to remain very strong, its logic chip testers – including the new system tester – are expected to commence production earliest by the third quarter of financial year 2022 (Q3’22).

It has also begun operations for orders related to 5G testers which are expected to commence mass production and more new products lined up.

There is also a ramp up in production of autonomous vehicle chip testers.

For Q2’22, its sales inched up 3% and this was mainly attributable to the continued demand from the group’s global customers in the semiconductor and life science as well as the medical technology industries.

Its order book surged by 13% quarter-on-quarter from RM150mil to a record-breaking RM170mil with semiconductor making up 82% of the orders, followed by life science/medical (16%) and others (2%).UWC had posted a core net profit of RM24mil for Q2’22 and HLIB noted that its core net profit of RM46mil for the first half FY22 had come in below expectations.

The discrepancy was due to lower-than-expected top line and other factors.