TPK Holding Co Ltd (宸鴻), which supplies touchpanels to Apple Inc’s new iPad Air tablets, yesterday posted a 27 percent monthly decline in revenue for last month, as customer demand slackened due to seasonal factors.
Revenue shrank to NT$11.59 billion (US$381 million) last month, compared with NT$15.93 billion in December. The figure represents a 41.4 percent reduction from NT$19.77 billion, marking the eighth month of annual decline since June of last year amid escalating competition and weak demand for PC’s wtih touch features.
“October through December is usually a peak season. Then customers reduced orders as reflected in the January figure,” finance division deputy director Kevin Wang (王凱論) said by telephone. “Basically, January’s [revenue] decline indicates seasonal slowness. Fewer working days were also a factor.”
This month could be another weak period based on TPK’s records, Wang said.
Responding to analysts’ forecast of a sequential decline between 20 percent and 25 percent in revenue this quarter, Wang said: “Their forecasts are based on the company’s historical records. It is too early to tell. The strength will depend on customers’ sales during the holidays.”
TPK is set to hold an investors’ conference on Feb. 19 to announce its detailed financial figures for last quarter and its outlook for the current quarter.
Macquarie Capital Securities Ltd Taiwan analysists Tammy Lai (賴敏敏) and Aaron Wu forecast TPK would post a 20 percent quarterly decline in revenue this quarter from NT$41.88 billion in the final quarter of last year.
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