Catcher Technology Co (可成) yesterday said business would be better this quarter and the momentum would sustain into the second half, referencing the company’s typical business cycle.
“We maintain our view that the first quarter of this year will be a low point, and that business will grow quarter-by-quarter for the rest of the year,” Catcher spokesman James Wu (巫俊毅) said by telephone.
Wu’s remarks came after the metal casing supplier posted revenue of NT$16.84 billion (US$520.11 million) for the first quarter, representing a 3.2 percent year-on-year decline and below the company’s forecast of NT$17.4 billion.
The figure represents a 28.27 percent decline from the prior quarter’s NT$23.48 billion, according to a Catcher filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Wu said last month was the beginning of a rebound, after monthly sales expanded 54.8 percent to NT$6.44 billion from February because of new smartphone launches by clients and more working days.
“The second quarter is expected to be better than the first quarter,” he said, adding that overall client demand remains weak in the first half compared with last year.
Catcher chairman Allen Hung (洪水樹) in January told investors that the market had been volatile since the end of the final quarter of last year and that orders would grow in the second half on the back of new product launches by clients.
JPMorgan Securities Ltd on Monday last week forecast Catcher’s revenue this quarter would reach NT$20.69 billion, up 2.83 percent from a year earlier.
JPMorgan said it believes Catcher would gain market share from the release of Apple Inc’s next-generation 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones this year, adding that the iPhone metal-casing business would contribute 49 percent to Catcher’s total revenue this year.
Catcher’s smartphone segment, including its iPhone business, accounted for 57 percent of the firm’s revenue of NT$82.41 billion last year.
The company’s notebook computer segment accounted for 32 percent of its revenue last year, while consumer electronics products contributed 10 percent.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
RSS