Catcher Technologies Co (可成科技), which supplies metal casings for Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday revised upward its sales guidance for next quarter, citing increasing demand for smartphone and notebook products.
“Thanks to the smoother production and strong orders for metal casings for new projects, we now forecast the next quarter will be better than this quarter,” Catcher chairman Allen Hung (洪水樹) told a media briefing after the firm’s shareholders’ meeting in Tainan.
In an investors’ conference on April 29, Horng said the company’s revenue next quarter would be flat from this quarter due to the dissipating product cycle for existing projects.
Photo: CNA
In the first five months of this year, Catcher made NT$31.33 billion (US$1 billion) in sales, up 64.05 percent from a year earlier.
Hung said the strong sales performance bodes well for the company throughout this year.
Hung said sales this month would drop slightly from last month’s NT$6.85 billion due to a traditional slow season, but they would pick up significantly from next quarter.
“Sales in the fourth quarter of this year will expand further from the third quarter,” Catcher spokesman James Wu (巫俊毅) said.
Hung said the predicted momentum is based on larger order allocations from its major smartphone clients this year.
Commenting on one of its clients’ new smartphone projects, Hung said a surface treatment on a harder metallic material is more difficult than traditional metal-casing processes and would lower the yield rate at the beginning of the production cycle.
“However, it will not be a major issue for Catcher, as we keep improving our techniques,” Hung said.
Despite soft demand for PCs and weaker-than-expected smartphone sales, Hung said the firm does not worry about its business outlook, because Catcher’s main clients are doing well in the notebook computer and smartphone segments.
“Overall, our main clients are on the winning team,” he said.
In a bid to meet rising demand from clients, Catcher raised its capital expenditure by 35 percent from a year earlier to NT$6.76 billion in the first half of this year, Hung said, adding that the funds will be mainly be used to build new factories.
He said that capital expenditure for the second half of this year would be flat from the first half, mainly because of equipment purchases.
“Overall, capital expenditure for this year is to be lower than last year’s NT$23.2 billion,” he said.
Hung said he is upbeat about Catcher’s ability to outpace rivals for at least five years, adding that the firm’s advanced technologies and techniques in metal casing treatments for various products put it in a strong position.
Despite market concerns about rising competition from Casetek Holdings Ltd (鎧勝) and FIH Mobile Ltd (富智康) regarding orders of Apple MacBook and tablet products, Catcher remains confident about its technological edge.
“Tell me, which company should Catcher be worried about?” Hung asked shareholders.
Metal casing treatments are more delicate and complicated than people imagine, he said, adding that the work requires more than just advanced equipment.
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS