Premier Image Technology Corp (普立爾), the nation's largest contract digital camera maker, is eyeing a 40 percent growth in revenues this year, bolstered by strong outsourcing demand from overseas clients, company executives said yesterday.
"We expect this to be a good year for us. More orders will come from our US and Japanese clients, as they tend to quicken the pace of production outsourcing to cut costs," company chairman Cliff Liu (劉燈桂) told investors yesterday.
The rosy outlook for the digital camera segment will drive the company's revenues to over NT$50 billion (US$1.55 billion) this year, he said.
The company expected that 60 percent of revenues will be generated during the second half of the year, with robust growth especially occurring in the third quarter.
Premier -- which manufactures digital cameras, projectors and camera modules for mobile phones -- posted consolidated revenues of NT$35.88 billion last year, up 53 percent from one year ago.
Its gross profit hit NT$5.03 billion, marking a 38 percent increase year-on-year. Net profit reported a 48 percent rise to NT$1,571 million, with earnings per share at NT$2.71, according to the company's latest statistics.
This year's growth momentum is sustainable because of the rising global demand for digital cameras, whose volumes are expected to jump to 90 million units from 85 million units last year, Liu said.
"We are confident of garnering 17 percent of total global digital camera production market share this year," he said, adding that its share last year was 12 percent.
In the fourth quarter last year, Premier shipped around 3.3 million digital cameras, 50,000 projectors and 2 million camera modules, its data showed.
According to Liu, the company aims to diversify its business portfolio to reduce risks, though there is still a long way to go in the projector business.
"We are struggling in the projector business as we started with smaller economies of scale. The lower average selling prices in the last quarter affected our overall profitability," he said.
However, he stated that he believes the company stands a chance as it will continue to strengthen its core technology, which will ensure continuous orders from the US and Japan.
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