Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s leading maker of handset lenses, yesterday reported that sales expanded 32 percent last month from February, according to information posted on the company’s Web site.
Consolidated revenue grew to NT$1.63 billion from NT$1.23 billion the previous month, but it was still lower than the NT$2.24 billion posted in January.
On a yearly basis, last month’s figure represented an increase of 24 percent from NT$1.31 billion in March last year, the firm said.
As a result, revenue in the first quarter of the year totaled NT$5.1 billion, down 40.56 percent quarter-on-quarter, but 40.19 percent higher than a year earlier, company data showed.
The Greater Taichung-based company — whose customers include HTC Corp (宏達電), Apple Inc, Nokia Oyj and BlackBerry Ltd — had said in late January that first-quarter sales would decline sequentially and gave a conservative outlook for the second quarter because of product transitions at major clients.
“Revenue is likely to go down slightly in the first quarter” from the previous quarter’s NT$8.58 billion, Largan chief executive Adam Lin (林恩平) told an investors’ conference on Jan. 31, citing fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday in February and because of reduced orders from some clients.
Amid market worries that weakening iPhone sales could result in another revenue decline in the second quarter, the company told investors that it had received orders from a South Korean client and would start shipments of high-end lenses for the client in the second quarter.
Though Largan did not identify the South Korean client, analysts viewed the move as a breakthrough for the Taiwanese firm and forecast that increased orders from non-Apple clients would lead to better average selling prices and profit margins this quarter.
In the first quarter, HTC, BlackBerry and Samsung Electronics Co all launched their latest flagship smartphone models. The first two are hoping the new devices can help them win back market share, while the latter is is aiming to maintain its stronghold in the smartphone industry.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been