Young Fast Optoelectronics Co (洋華), the nation’s largest touch-screen module and touch sensor maker, said yesterday that net income plunged about 60 percent last quarter, blaming a drastic decline in prices and foreign exchange losses.
Net income dropped to NT$330 million (US$11.17 million), or NT$2.32 per share, last quarter, compared with NT$809 million, or NT$6.08 a share, in the same period last year, according to the company’s financial statement. That marked the weakest quarterly net profit since the third quarter of 2008.
On a quarterly basis, the results also meant a 59.3 percent decrease from NT$810 million in the third quarter of last year.
Gross margin plunged to 20.8 percent last quarter from 31.3 percent a year earlier, and 29.5 percent from the third quarter of last year.
“Decline in average selling price is the major reason behind the contraction of gross margin. The price of resistant touch products slid 30 percent to 50 percent last quarter,” company chairman T.J. Lin (林德錚) said in a teleconference.
Resistant touch sensors and modules made up 60 percent of Young Fast’s total revenues of NT$4.78 billion in the final quarter of last year, while capacitive touch modules accounted for 37 percent.
Foreign exchange losses were also an important factor, Lin said. Young Fast posted about NT$330 million in foreign exchange losses last quarter.
“It is unlikely that our gross margin will rebound to 30 percent,” Lin said.
Young Fast supplies touch sensors and touch modules primarily to HTC Corp (宏達電), as well as South Korea’s LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics.
Next quarter, revenues are expected to shrink by double-digit percentage points from the first quarter as demand remains weak during the traditionally slow season, Lin said.
Young Fast planned to ship new products, including touch products used in tablet devices, in the second quarter, he said.
For all of last year, Young Fast’s net income decreased 10 percent to NT$2.67 billion from NT$2.97 billion in 2009.
Shares of Young Fast climbed 3.38 percent to NT$214 yesterday, beating the benchmark TAIEX, which gained 1.09 percent.
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