Metal casing supplier Catcher Technology Co (可成科技) is optimistic that stronger demand for PC and mobile devices will boost sales this year.
The company yesterday reported that sales last month rose 14.3 percent month-on-month to NT$6.52 billion (US$223.68 million), representing 31 percent growth from the same period last year and setting a new record for March.
Aggregate sales in the first quarter totaled NT$20.41 billion, dipping 37.8 percent from the previous quarter, but still representing 40 percent year-on-year growth.
The first-quarter sales marked the company’s strongest showing yet in the January-to-March period and the first time that the figure exceeded NT$20 billion, Catcher said.
While PC demand growth is expected to continue throughout the first half of this year, momentum would shift to mobile devices in the second half, it said.
Demand for mobile devices would be more robust this year compared with last year, it added.
Separately, handset camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) reported that sales last month recovered from a tumble in February, growing 41.72 percent month-on-month to NT$3.14 billion, but still 13.41 percent less than in the same period last year.
The company reported sales of NT$8.88 billion in the first quarter, rising 44.82 percent quarterly, but falling 17.86 percent on an annual basis.
Largan said that 10-megapixel camera lenses made up the bulk of its sales last month at 70 to 80 percent, while 8-megapixel lenses represented 10 to 20 percent of shipments and 5 megapixel lenses made up about 10 percent.
Shares in Largan on Tuesday ended unchanged at NT$3,185 in Taipei trading as bargain-hunting helped the stock recover from a 4.93 percent decline on Monday after a US brokerage cut its target price for the stock from NT$3,000 to NT$2,800 due to lower-than-expected shipments of Apple Inc’s iPhone X.
The company is scheduled to hold an earnings conference on Thursday next week, with investors now focusing on the company’s order visibility as it serves new customers, such as Samsung Electronics Co, and when market conditions will recover from an ongoing lull.
Shares in Catcher have risen 7.62 percent since the beginning of this year, closing at NT$353 on Tuesday in Taipei trading.
The stock has received upgrades from securities analysts, citing robust demand growth across product lines since the second half of last year.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
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