IC design house MediaTek on March 15 said that the recent earthquake offshore of Japan will not affect the company's operations. Forecasts of first-quarter revenues remain at NT$19.5-21 billion (US$659-710 million).

MediaTek indicated that its handset chipsets are mostly shipped to white-box manufacturers in China with end-use devices powered by its chipsets targeted at emerging markets. As for brand vendor clients, MediaTek supplies medium-to-low-end solutions to LG Electronics and Motorola, which mainly manufacture in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, with end-use devices also aimed at emerging countries. Though some industry observers are concerned about shipments to Sharp, the Japan-based vendor outsources via the ODM model and handsets are made in China and will not be distributed in Japan.

As for the TV sector, Taiwan- and South Korea-based component manufacturers should be able to make up for Japan's decreased output, MediaTek pointed out, adding that shipments for its TV chipsets will see very little disruption. In the optical drive sector, the biggest concern is shortages of pick-up heads, but South Korea should have sufficient capacity to pick up some of the slack, MediaTek said. In addition, Japan-based optical drive vendors have historically adopted their own components; the earthquake could translate to orders being transfered to MediaTek.

With the three main product lines seeing little impact from the earthquake, and its sales channels mainly focused on China and emerging markets, MediaTek will not adjust its first-quarter financial guidance. The company's revenues in January and February totaled NT$12.06 billion and March sales should rebound to above NT$7.5 billion, up at least 60% sequentially. Second-quarter projections will depend on whether there will be lingering effects from the earthquake.