Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) yesterday reported that its sales for last month declined 17.04 percent from November, but its whole-year revenue for last year increased 7.71 percent from 2012.
The company, based in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Linkou District (林口), said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its consolidated sales were NT$853.18 million (US$28.49 million) last month.
On an annual basis, sales increased 18.05 percent, the filing showed.
Ichia, which also manufactures other electronic components such as flexible printed circuit (FPC) boards used in smartphones, tablets and other devices, said the monthly decline in sales was because of slower demand for both FPC integrated components and integrated modules for metal and plastic mechanical parts.
Company data showed its sales of integrated FPC components fell to NT$739 million last month from NT$898 million in November, while those of integrated modules for metal and plastic mechanical parts, including items used for BlackBerry Ltd’s QWERTY keyboards, also declined to NT$125 million from the previous month’s NT$142 million.
Apart from BlackBerry, Ichia also counts Nokia Oyj, Alcatel-Lucent SA and Sony Corp among its major customers.
However, the company’s sales for the October-to-December quarter hit NT$2.74 billion, which represents its highest quarterly level in two years thanks to clients’ launches of new smartphone and tablet products.
Last quarter’s figure was up 7.9 percent from the third quarter’s NT$2.54 billion, and higher than the NT$2.67 billion forecast by Jih Sun Securities Co (日盛證券).
For the whole of last year, consolidated revenue totaled NT$9.59 billion, up 7.71 percent from the NT$8.9 billion recorded in 2012 and 0.76 percent higher than Jih Sun’s estimate of NT$9.52 billion.
Ichia’s shares closed up 2.2 percent at NT$16.25 on Tuesday. They have risen 9.8 percent over the past 12 months, compared with the broader market’s 11.85 percent increase over the same period.
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