E-paper display supplier E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday gave a positive outlook for the second half of the year as its customers prepare to launch new e-reader and e-notebook models that should fuel growth.
After exiting the lower-margin LCD industry last quarter, the company said it is now concentrating on expanding uses for e-paper displays to diverse applications such as e-notebooks, smart cards and multicolored electronic shelf labels for retailers and logistics operators.
“We see year-on-year growth in the e-reader business in the second half during the peak season, primarily driven by rising demand from China and emerging markets,” Frank Ko (柯富仁) told an teleconference in Taipei.
E Ink is a long-time e-paper display supplier for e-readers sold by Amazon.com Inc and Rakuten Kobo Inc.
There are growth opportunities in the company’s new product lines, such as e-notebooks, Ko said.
“We have been actively developing e-notebooks over the past one to two years together with our key customer,” Ko said
E-ink has teamed up with Sony Corp in a joint venture to develop a laptop product integrating its technology.
“This year is an important year for us to pitch this product to the market,” Ko said. “We are seeing replacement demand from the healthcare sector to the financing and education sectors,” Ko said.
This year as a whole, e-readers and e-notebooks are expected to contribute more than 70 percent to E Ink’s overall revenue, he said.
E Ink has also made progress in promoting its e-paper displays for ‘smart’ credit cards, point-collection cards and public transportation cards, Ko said.
France’s major banks and Korea Telecom Corp are to equip their credit cards or debit cards with e-paper displays to enhance security, he said.
While those new applications may take some time to make significant revenue contribution, Ko said the company is expecting growth in its major electronic shelf labels in the second half of the year.
Chinese retailers, such as a new supermarket funded by Alibaba Group Holding Inc (阿里巴巴), are joining their peers in the US and Europe in adopting electronics shelf labels, Ko said.
Electronic shelf labels would make up between 15 percent and 20 percent of E Ink’s revenue this year, making them the firm’s second-biggest source of revenue, he said.
Given the rising contribution from higher-margin products, Ko said “gross margin in the second half will remain above average for the company.”
Last quarter, gross margin climbed to 40.1 percent, the best result since 2002, company data showed.
E Ink’s operating income last quarter soared 71 percent to NT$293 million (US$14.5 million), from NT$171 million in the same period last year.
Royalty income, an important contributor to the company’s bottom line, is expected to remain stable this year, Ko said.
E Ink last year booked NT$2.25 billion in royalty income. It made NT$870 million from royalties in the second quarter of this year.
STEADY: Prices are to rebound following inventory rebuilding demand, TrendForce said, with Samsung Electronics Co further trimming capacity as it slashes DDR4 lines The contract prices of DRAM chips are to rise by as much as 18 percent sequentially this quarter — the first price upticks in about eight quarters — driven mainly by inventory rebuilding demand for DRAM chips used in mobile devices and PCs, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) projected yesterday. The price rebound is led by a quarterly increase of mobile DRAM chips, which are to climb between 13 percent and 18 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, which has not been seen since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Taipei-based market researcher predicted. Likewise, the price of mainstream PC DDR4 DRAM is expected to bounce
CHINA NOT A FRIEND: ‘Newsflash: Democracy is good for your businesses,’ US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said as she gave a speech at a national defense forum US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Saturday urged lawmakers, Silicon Valley and US allies to stop China from getting semiconductors and cutting-edge technologies key to national security. Speaking at an annual national defense forum in Simi Valley, California, Raimondo called Beijing “the biggest threat we’ve ever had” and stressed that “China is not our friend.” The world’s top two economies are locked in a fierce commercial and geopolitical rivalry, in which her department plays a leading role. In October, Raimondo unveiled a series of restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, including those used in the development of artificial intelligence
SOLID FOUNDATION: Given its decades of expertise in megatronics, manufacturing and robotics, Japan has the wherewithal to create its own AI, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp plans to help build an artificial intelligence (AI) tech-related ecosystem in Japan to meet demand in a country eager to gain an edge in this emerging technology. The US company will seek to partner with Japanese research organizations, companies and start-ups to build factories for AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday during opening remarks in a meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura. The company is to set up an AI research laboratory, and invest in local start-ups and educate the public on using AI, Huang said. Huang earlier this week met with Japanese Prime
A Hong Kong court postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) winding-up petition scheduled for yesterday until Jan. 29. Evergrande is trying to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure more than US$300 billion in debt to stave off liquidation. The company’s lawyer told the court it was requesting an adjournment to “refine” its new debt restructuring plan. The Hong Kong High Court has postponed the hearing over Evergrande’s potential liquidation several times. Judge Linda Chan (陳靜芬) had said in October that yesterday’s hearing would be the last before a decision is handed down. Chan
RSS