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.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce