Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Pegatron Corp (和碩) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) all posted annual declines in combined revenue in the first two months of this year amid a soft global economy.
Hon Hai, which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhones, yesterday reported combined revenue of NT$618.25 billion (US$18.69 billion) in January and last month, a year-on-year decline of 8.55 percent from NT$676.02 billion in the same period last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Last month alone, revenue grew slightly by 0.22 percent to NT$280.64 billion from the previous year, but it plunged 16.87 percent from the previous month, the filing said.
“The first quarter is the traditional slow season for the industry. In addition to fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday, the company’s consumer electronics, computing and communications segments all fell from the previous month,” Hon Hai said in a statement.
Pegatron, also an iPhone assembler, posted NT$167.15 billion in revenue in the first two months of the year, down 10.77 percent from NT$187.33 billion in the same period last year, a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Pegatron, whose communications segment contributed more than 60 percent of its total revenue, said sales last month dropped 5.14 percent year-on-year and 35.2 percent month-on-month to NT$65.72 billion.
“The 35.2 percent monthly decline was in line with the company’s expectations. Last year, we also saw a 41.3 percent monthly decline due to seasonality,” said a Pegatron investor relations official, who declined to be named.
The company also refused to comment on the outlook for the first quarter as it is due to host an investors’ conference on Thursday next week.
Quanta, which assembles Apple’s MacBooks and the Apple Watch, posted a 2.37 percent annual drop in combined sales to NT$122.18 billion in the first two months due to a lack of demand for notebooks.
Quanta’s notebook shipments in the first two months totaled 4.6 million units, plunging 22.03 percent from 5.9 million notebooks shipped in the same period last year, the company said.
Quanta said it expects notebook shipments this month to grow from last month, but that its total shipments for this quarter are expected to decline from last year’s 9.9 million units.
“We foresee this quarter to be the trough of the company’s operations this year and then performance should be pick up from next quarter,” a Quanta investor relations official said by telephone.
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