Largan Precision Co (
The Taichung-based maker posted a record high of NT$7.3 billion (US$222.7 million) in sales last year, up from NT$4 billion, it told an investor conference yesterday.
Net income was NT$3.9 billion last year, or NT$32.06 per share, showing a 127 percent growth from NT$1.7 billion, or NT$14.1 a share, a year ago.
Gross margins, meanwhile, improved to 61.9 percent from 53.7 percent, according to company statistics.
In terms of fourth quarter results, Largan posted NT$2.1 billion in sales, with gross margins hitting a record high of 62.6 percent.
However, the company is expected to brace for a traditionally slow first quarter, where it may see a double-digit decline in sequential sales.
"Clients' demand will slow this quarter due to inventories having piled up last year," said company chairman and chief executive Scott Lin (
Continuous price pressure will also affect the margin performance, he said.
This year, focus will be on 2-megapixel (MP) lenses and lower-resolution video-graphics-array (VGA) lenses, as 1.3-MP lenses lose momentum, he said.
"Handset buyers will normally go for VGA lenses just to snap simple pictures or choose higher-end 2-MP models for better quality. The 1.3-MP lenses are stuck in an awkward position," said Marty Kung (
He said that more production of 2-MP lenses will increase profitability for Largan, but the price advantage may not last long due to stiff industry competition.
According to Lin, Largan is poised to speed up its pace in other product portfolios in a bid to diversify risks on handsets.
In the fourth quarter of last year, lens shipments from handsets contributed 87 percent to the company's total sales.
Shipments of digital cameras and multi-functional printers accounted for 7 percent and 4 percent respectively.
New products this year include lenses for notebooks and MP3 players, Lin said, adding that MP3 lenses will start being produced next month, with volumes picking up in June.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
RSS