Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s third-largest supplier of ceramic capacitors (MLCC), yesterday raised its business outlook for this quarter, as customers’ inventories returned to healthy levels and the year-end shopping season stimulated demand.
Inventory turnover of finished goods might fall to 70 days in the fourth quarter, down from 90 days as estimated previously, signaling that the worst might be over, Yageo said in a statement.
That would be a substantial improvement from 147 days at the end of the first quarter.
Recovering demand will help shore up factory utilization, it said.
Yageo issued the positive outlook after it last month posted a third straight monthly revenue expansion.
Revenue rose about 3 percent to NT$3.52 billion (US$113.9 million) last month, compared with NT$3.41 billion in August, the highest since January.
That brought the company’s third-quarter revenue to NT$10.31 billion, up 7.62 percent from NT$9.58 billion in the second quarter, snapping three quarters of quarterly contractions.
The growth “reflected continuous demand increase in greater China and other Asian regions,” the company said.
However, it remained vigilant amid a challenging environment for sales given unresolved trade frictions between the US and China, Yageo said.
Chilisin Electronics Corp (奇力新), Yageo’s passive-component manufacturing arm, posted revenue of NT$1.4 billion for last month, little changed from August’s NT$1.41 billion.
Last quarter, revenue expanded 3.73 percent to NT$4.17 billion from NT$4.02 billion in the second quarter.
Smaller rival Holy Stone Enterprise Co (禾伸堂) yesterday posted 10.39 percent growth in revenue for last month to NT$1.45 billion, from NT$1.32 billion the prior month.
In the third quarter, Holy Stone’s revenue jumped 7.45 percent to NT$4.04 billion, compared with NT$3.76 billion in the second quarter.
“The company’s operations improved in the third quarter, attributable to inventory reduction in the supply chain and seasonal pickup in demand,” Holy Stone said in a statement.
Supply and demand are to reach parity, while factory usage will increase gradually in the fourth quarter, it said.
Walsin Technology Corp (華新科) said that revenue last month declined 2.87 percent to NT$2.37 billion from NT$2.44 billion a month earlier.
Walsin attributed the decline to its inventory management and lower average selling prices.
The company’s revenue contracted 8.38 percent to NT$7.22 billion last quarter from NT$7.88 billion in the previous quarter.
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