Share prices of Coretronic Corp (
The company expects rear-projection, or digital light processing (DLP), projector shipments to rise to around 400,000 units this year from 170,000 units last year, spokesperson Cindy Wen (溫慧萍) said yesterday.
At an investor conference held on Monday in Taipei, chairman Wade Chang (張威儀) said the company would sell all it could produce and expected sales to rise to about NT$10 billion a year within five years.
"We're optimistic that we can hit that target," Wen said.
The top projector maker reported after-tax income for last year of NT$770 million, or NT$2.01 a share, on revenues of NT$23.9 billion, up 40 percent from the previous year.
Investors welcomed the company's forecast, sending shares of Coretronic up 7 percent to close at NT$42 on the TAIEX.
"It is highly possible that Coretronic could earn more this year due to growing demand for home-theater projectors because of falling retail prices," said Helen Chen (陳佩君), an analyst at Polaris Securities Group (寶來證券).
Chen forecast that Coretron-ic's earnings will double to NT$3.95 a share, in line with shipment growth this year.
Despite the downward pressure on projector prices, Coretronic will be able to sustain its gross margin at around 10.26 percent, the analyst said.
But the uncertain supply of key components such as bulbs could hurt the company's ability to reach the target, she warned.
A recent report released by market researcher Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 市場情報中心) showed that Taiwan's digital projector shipments for this year will rise to around 751,000 units, from 394,000 units last year.
"Digital projectors, which used to be a corporate-oriented product, are now making it onto the shopping list of general consumers," said MIC analyst Annabelle Hsu (
A sharp price decline during the second half of last year has spurred demand for home projectors, she added.
As projector prices fell to US$1,000 each, consumers have been more willing to choose digital projectors, rather than pricey flat-screen televisions, as a major part of their home entertainment systems, Hsu said.
"That will be a boon for digital projector manufacturers," Hsu said.
In addition to digital projectors, Coretronic also diversified into flat-screen televisions last year by producing plasma display panels (PDP) and rear-projection TVs mostly on a contract basis.
But the shipment volume remained small, with Coretronic producing just 1,000 PDP TVs and 5,400 rear-projection TVs during the last quarter, Wen said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Standard Chartered Taiwan on March 26 announced that it has partnered with international fintech firm FinIQ to build an “Automated Structured Products Pricing Platform.” The bank is also introducing products from global issuers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays PLC and BNP Paribas SA. The new platform enables an end-to-end process whereby it finds the most competitive pricing across multiple issuers in a matter of minutes, followed by automated documentation and transaction execution, which significantly shortens time-to-market and delivers a superior wealth management experience. Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan CEO Anthony Yu (游天立) said: “Standard Chartered is increasingly leveraging its wealth management
RSS