Diodes Inc. (Westlake Village, CA) announced updated guidance for the second quarter of 2002 at its annual meeting of shareholders. The company now expects to report double-digit sequential revenue growth for the second quarter, up from the previous guidance of approximately four percent. The growth is primarily due to strength in the North American market.
Gross-profit margin is expected to be above 20 percent, which is up from the previous guidance of 17 to 18 percent, and primarily attributable to increased capacity utilization at the company's mainland China facility and at its wafer facility. The combination of revenue growth and operating efficiencies is expected to result in an over six-fold sequential increase in operating income for the second quarter.
Diodes President and CEO C.H. Chen said, "After months of speculation among analysts, we are finally seeing evidence that semiconductor industry fundamentals are improving. Diodes is benefiting from renewed ordering by distributors, particularly in the North American market. In addition, we continue to improve the efficiency of our operations and bring down unit costs by increasing capacity utilization. We expect our average capacity utilization to be well over 70 percent for the second quarter, compared to 60 percent for the previous quarter."
