Electronics component maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday posted a better-than-expected sales result for last quarter, mainly driven by robust shipments for camera modules last month.
Revenue was NT$55.96 billion (US$1.7 billion) last quarter, a decline of 10.43 percent from last year’s NT$62.48 billion, but 4.91 percent higher than the NT$53.34 billion made in the previous quarter.
The quarterly sales were higher than Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) estimate of NT$53.74 billion by 4.13 percent.
The company’s revenue totaled NT$159.18 billion in the first three quarters of this year, down 6.66 percent from a year earlier.
“Although the quarterly sales declined from a year earlier, Lite-On’s performance was better than our forecast,” a Yuanta analyst who declined to be named said by telephone.
The analyst said Lite-On’s smartphone clients launched new handset models last month, boosting the company’s camera module shipments.
In addition, PC shipments improved last month from August due to the launch of Intel Corp’s Skylake processor and Microsoft Corp’s Windows 10 operating system, benefiting Lite-On’s PC peripheral product shipments, the analyst said.
Last month Lite-On’s sales jumped 15 percent to NT$20.59 billion from a month earlier and 1.39 percent from a year earlier.
Lite-On said the revenue from its three main sectors — optoelectronics, information technology and storage — all increased from August due to growing demand from end markets.
Lite-On’s mild quarterly growth momentum should extend to this quarter, supported by stable demand in the market, the Yuanta analysts said. However, he did not see any specific growth catalyst to significantly boost the company’s sales this quarter.
“I expect the firm’s sales this quarter to slightly exceed my previous forecast of NT$56.3 billon,” he said, citing that markets for Lite-On’s core businesses, such as power supplies and PC peripherals, which have matured and are not expected to see exciting growth going forward.
Although the company’s camera module business accounts for the second-largest share in the Chinese market, its relatively weak production efficiency drags its competitiveness in the market, the analyst said.
“Lite-On is a large company with a complicated organization and many product lines,” he said. “It could be hard for the firm to gain significant growth in overall revenue.”
“However, Lite-On can move to improve its profitability if it is willing to carry out corporate restructure and improve its efficiency,” he said.
Lite-On shares rose 0.63 percent to NT$32.1 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 1.2 percent.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to