Camera module maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday posted 2.31 percent monthly growth in revenue to NT$5.75 billion (US$179.77 million) for last month, bringing the company’s total revenue last year up 67 percent annually.
Consolidated revenue last quarter jumped 38.01 percent to NT$16.81 billion, from the previous quarter’s NT$12.18 billion. Total revenue last year reached NT$45.81 billion, according to the firm’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
A Largan Investor Relations Division official said that as the company entered its slow season, it expects sales this quarter to decline sequentially.
“It is hard to tell the range of the decline in sales, as some of the clients will still make orders this month,” the official who declined to be named said by telephone.
Largan said its revenue breakdown remained the same for last quarter, in which 10-megapixel and above products contributed between 10 percent and 20 percent of total revenue, with 8-megapixel products accounting for between 40 percent and 50 percent of overall income.
Products in the 5-megapixel line contributed between 10 percent and 20 percent to revenue; 1-megapixel products, including high-definition products, accounted for 20 percent and 30 percent of revenue, the company said.
The company is scheduled to hold an investors’ conference in the middle of this month, the official said.
Yuanta Securities and Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) analyst Jeff Pu (蒲得宇) said he expects Largan to post a 25 percent quarterly decline in revenue this quarter due to the slow season.
“Largan’s performance this quarter will still be better than last year because of the large orders from major client Apple Inc,” Pu told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Pu said he foresees the product cycle for Apple Inc’s iPhone 6 smartphone models dissipating in the second quarter of this year, but thanks to another major client, Xiaomi Corp (小米), Largan would enjoy increased orders.
Pu said that currently, Largan mainly supplies modules for Xiaomi’s Redmi (紅米) smartphones, but he expects the company to gain orders for Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship phone, the Xiaomi5, or Mi5, in the first half of the year, because Taiwanese computer and handset peripheral products manufacturer Primax Electronics Ltd (致伸電子) is set to become the main supplier for the Mi5.
“Primax has close relationships with Largan, therefore, we can expect the camera lens module supplier to receive more orders from Xiaomi this year,” Pu said, adding that since the Chinese company aims to sell 100 million units this year, he foresees the firm benefiting more from Xiaomi than from Apple this year.
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],”