Profits for electronics parts maker Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) grew 16 percent annually in the first quarter of the year, driven mainly by high-end modules for dual camera lenses used in smartphones, the company reported yesterday.
The company’s net income of NT$1.98 billion (US$65.52 million) marks its highest quarterly result over the period in the past 13 years, Lite-On data showed, while earnings per share were NT$0.85 last quarter, compared with NT$0.74 a year earlier.
“The high-end camera module segment was the main contributor last quarter. Its revenue expanded by 20 percent from the same time a year ago,” Lite-On chief executive officer Warren Chen (陳廣中) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Higher shipments of its LED components and LED outdoor lighting products also boosted its earnings in the January-to-March period, Lite-On said.
Consolidated sales were NT$51.4 billion in the first quarter, up 3 percent year-on-year, Lite-On reported earlier this month, when it attributed the increase to stable market growth from the cloud computing, LED lighting and high-end camera module businesses.
However, the company yesterday said its operating margin contracted by 0.09 percentage points annually to 4 percent last quarter, while its gross margin dropped 0.22 percentage points to 13 percent, citing the negative effect of rising raw material costs that eroded earnings of its information technology business.
In addition, a supply shortage of NAND flash memory chips also delayed shipments of its storage products and affected the overall margin performance, the company said.
Chen said the continued component shortage and increasing prices of raw materials would keep adding pressure on Lite-On’s margin performance this quarter.
“On the bright side, as more clients adopt dual-camera features for their flagship smartphones, we forecast the top and bottom lines to climb further,” Chen said.
Lite-On’s camera clients are mainly Chinese smartphone vendors, such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Co (歐珀移動), which both launched high-end smartphones with dual cameras this quarter.
In light of the growing demand for camera modules, the company plans to expand its production capacity in the second half of this year, Chen said, declining to disclose the range of the expansion as the investment amount is not yet finalized.
The expanded capacity would be used for smartphones and new applications, such as camera modules for 3D-sensing and 360-degree cameras, Chen said, adding that they could be used in wearable products, drones or for surveillance.
Lite-On shares have risen 8.23 percent since the beginning of the year, compared with the broader market’s 6.68 percent increase. The stock closed at NT$52.6 yesterday in Taipei trading.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure