Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s largest handset lens manufacturer, posted record sales for both last month and the second quarter on strong lens shipments.
The company — which counts HTC Corp (宏達電), Apple Inc and Motorola Inc as customers — posted NT$1.4 billion (US$48.6 million) in sales last month, up 0.7 percent from May and up 42.8 percent from same month a year ago.
The company’s revenue for the second quarter was NT$4.1 billion, up 15.8 percent from the previous quarter.
Total sales for the first six months rose 51.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$7.6 billion, it said in a statement.
Largan chief executive Lin En-ping (林恩平) said in April that capital expenditure, or capex, this year would be “much more than the earlier estimates” of NT$1.5 billion as the firm boosts production capacity to cope with rising demand.
Largan spent NT$400 million on capital expenditure last year and is building a NT$600 million production site in Taichung, which is scheduled to begin mass production late next year.
“In light of strong demand, all lens makers are aggressively expanding. Consequently, technology leaders — namely, Largan — are likely to take most of the sweet spots in the capex race during the up-cycle,” Morgan Stanley said in a research report last week.
This is especially true as Largan is receiving strong orders from Apple for various products, including iPhones and iPads, it said.
Morgan Stanley said Largan has been leading its peers in pixel migration, from an average 2 megapixels and below in the past to the current trend of 5 mexapixels and above.
This has allowed Largan to capture most of the demand in smartphones and tablets that require higher resolution and distance itself from the competition, it said.
Largan’s shares closed down 0.7 percent to NT$960 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday before the monthly sales update.
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