Electronic component maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) expects revenue to pick up next quarter because demand for Ultrabook computers and servers supporting cloud computing technology is expected to boost demand for its camera modules and power supply units, a company executive said yesterday.
The growth momentum would be even stronger in the second half of this year, helped by an increase in shipments of tablet devices, new smartphones and notebook computers running Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system, Lite-On chief executive officer Warren Chen (陳廣中) told a media briefing.
“We have high anticipation for the second half,” Chen said. “We believe Windows 8 will be a major driver.”
Lite-On supplies camera modules and key components to many smartphone makers, including HTC Corp (宏達電) and Nokia.
Chen said a recent -improvement in the US economy and new progress in solving the eurozone’s debt problems gave him greater confidence on growing the company’s revenues this year than three months ago. In December last year, Lite-On said it aimed to expand annual revenues by a single-digit percent this year.
This quarter would be the trough of this year. Revenue is expected to drop by mid-single digits this quarter, from NT$29.07 billion (US$983.32 million) in the fourth quarter because demand usually dips in the first three months of a year, Chen said.
Chen’s forecast beat the expectations of Credit Suisse, which projected a quarterly decline of between 10 and 15 percent this quarter based on a report issued yesterday.
Lite-On yesterday said net income plummeted 31.6 percent to NT$1.5 billion in the final quarter of last year, compared with NT$2.19 billion the previous year, according to the company’s financial statement. That was down 42 percent from NT$2.58 billion in net profits in the third quarter.
The company said a hard disk drive supply crunch after severe floods in Thailand has slowed customers’ PC shipments and thereby curtailed demand for its components. The floods also suspended shipments from its LED factory in Thailand, which caused a decline of 30 percent year-on-year in its LED revenue last quarter.
The floods also cut the company’s gross margin to 12.8 percent in the quarter ending Dec. 31, from 13.1 percent in the third quarter, as manufacturing costs rose, Lite-On said. Gross margin was 12.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.
On Monday, Lite-On posted full year net income of NT$7.23 billion, or NT$3.22 per share, down 19.6 percent from NT$8.99 billion, or NT$4.06 per share, in 2010. Revenues decreased 3.7 percent to NT$118.88 billion last year from NT$123.46 billion in 2010.
Lite-On plans to keep its payout ratio stable at about 72 percent as in prevous years, Chen said.
That would bring its cash dividend to about NT$2.32 per share this year, implying a 6.31 percent dividend yield based on the company’s stock price of NT$36.75 yesterday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”