Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) on Saturday reported sales for last month that missed market expectations, after posting better-than-expected sales in January.
The company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its consolidated sales rose 101.81 percent year-on-year, but declined 12.39 percent month-on-month to NT$824.65 million (US$27.17 million) last month.
Last month’s figure was less than the NT$850 billion estimate made by Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券). In January, Ichia reported sales grew 28.09 percent year-on-year and 10.32 percent month-on-month to NT$941.23 million.
For the first two months of the year, Ichia’s consolidated revenue totaled NT$1.77 billion, up 54.44 percent from the same period last year, according to company data.
Ichia counts BlackBerry Ltd, Nokia Oyj, Alcatel-Lucent SA and Sony Corp among its customers.
Sales generated from the company’s flexible printed-circuit integrated components were NT$755 million last month — or 92 percent of total sales — but lower than the NT$855 million in January.
Those of mechanical integrated components, including items used for BlackBerry devices’ QWERTY keyboards, were NT$70 million, also lower than the previous month’s NT$86 million.
Sales of mechanical integrated components have declined to 8 percent of the company’s total last month from an average of 40 percent in the second quarter of last year, because of the negative impact of struggling BlackBerry.
Wang Deng-cheng (王登城), co-head of Yuanta’s technology research, said Ichia would likely see a double-digit percentage fall in its sales of mechanical integrated components this year from last year.
However, orders for the company’s flexible printed-circuit integrated components may continue rising with sales up by 30 percent from last year, Wang said.
Ichia shares closed at NT$18.8 on Thursday in Taipei trading, rising 21.29 percent in the past three months, compared with the broader market’s 2.67 percent increase, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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