Casetek Holdings Ltd (鎧勝), a metal casing supplier for Apple Inc’s MacBooks and iPads, yesterday reported its lowest quarterly earnings performance in its history, due to the delayed launch of the new MacBook Pro.
Casetek’s net profit plunged 77.4 percent annually and 15.8 percent quarterly to NT$366 million (US$11.62 million) in the third quarter, company data showed.
Gross margin over the period dropped to 11.8 percent, a decline of 14.8 percentage points from last year’s 26.6 percent and 4.8 percentage points from the previous quarter’s 16.6 percent.
Operating margin also fell to a record low of 3.9 percent, compared with the same period last year’s 17.4 percent and the previous quarter’s 6.1 percent.
“The weaker-than-expected profitability and gross margin are mainly due to postponed shipments of new notebook computers,” Casetek chief financial officer Jonathan Chang (張昭平) told a teleconference.
Casetek chief executive officer Gary Chuang (莊育志) said revenues should begin to pick up this quarter, and that the recovery would extend through next quarter, as Apple started to ship the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros at the end of last month.
Chuang said Casetek secured the orders for the 12-inch MacBook last year and entered the supply chain for the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros for the first time this year.
“We foresee the revenue contribution from notebooks rising significantly next year,” Chuang said.
Notebooks accounted for 40 percent of the company’s total revenue, while its tablet segment contributed 50 to 60 percent, Casetek said.
When asked if Casetek has made progress winning a smartphone contract with its major client — as the company has for years been trying to enter the supply chain for iPhones — Chuang said: “I believe we will have a good chance next year, given the client’s positive feedback.”
“From iMacs, iPads to MacBooks … the [iPhone] is the only product we have not supplied. We will focus on developing this business next year,” Chuang said.
Chuang said he would not be worried if Apple decided to adopt glass back covers for its new range of iPhones instead of full metal casings next year, because both materials would require casing suppliers’ computer numerical control (CNC) machines and technologies.
Casetek’s board yesterday approved a capital expenditure plan of US$66.12 million for the purchase of 1,000 CNC machines over the end of this year and the beginning of next year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Casetek said in a separate filing that its revenue plummeted 37 percent annually and 2.3 percent monthly to NT$2.54 billion last month.
That brought its combined revenues for the first 10 months of the year to NT$25.01 billion, the filing showed.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS