Casetek Holdings Ltd (鎧勝), a metal casing supplier for Apple Inc’s MacBooks and iPads, yesterday reported its lowest quarterly earnings performance in its history, due to the delayed launch of the new MacBook Pro.
Casetek’s net profit plunged 77.4 percent annually and 15.8 percent quarterly to NT$366 million (US$11.62 million) in the third quarter, company data showed.
Gross margin over the period dropped to 11.8 percent, a decline of 14.8 percentage points from last year’s 26.6 percent and 4.8 percentage points from the previous quarter’s 16.6 percent.
Operating margin also fell to a record low of 3.9 percent, compared with the same period last year’s 17.4 percent and the previous quarter’s 6.1 percent.
“The weaker-than-expected profitability and gross margin are mainly due to postponed shipments of new notebook computers,” Casetek chief financial officer Jonathan Chang (張昭平) told a teleconference.
Casetek chief executive officer Gary Chuang (莊育志) said revenues should begin to pick up this quarter, and that the recovery would extend through next quarter, as Apple started to ship the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros at the end of last month.
Chuang said Casetek secured the orders for the 12-inch MacBook last year and entered the supply chain for the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros for the first time this year.
“We foresee the revenue contribution from notebooks rising significantly next year,” Chuang said.
Notebooks accounted for 40 percent of the company’s total revenue, while its tablet segment contributed 50 to 60 percent, Casetek said.
When asked if Casetek has made progress winning a smartphone contract with its major client — as the company has for years been trying to enter the supply chain for iPhones — Chuang said: “I believe we will have a good chance next year, given the client’s positive feedback.”
“From iMacs, iPads to MacBooks … the [iPhone] is the only product we have not supplied. We will focus on developing this business next year,” Chuang said.
Chuang said he would not be worried if Apple decided to adopt glass back covers for its new range of iPhones instead of full metal casings next year, because both materials would require casing suppliers’ computer numerical control (CNC) machines and technologies.
Casetek’s board yesterday approved a capital expenditure plan of US$66.12 million for the purchase of 1,000 CNC machines over the end of this year and the beginning of next year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Casetek said in a separate filing that its revenue plummeted 37 percent annually and 2.3 percent monthly to NT$2.54 billion last month.
That brought its combined revenues for the first 10 months of the year to NT$25.01 billion, the filing showed.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS