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.
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
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
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
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
RSS