Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技), which focuses on making gaming computers, graphics cards and related components, yesterday said it expects revenue to grow year-on-year next quarter as new and better-performing processors from chipmakers such as Intel Corp and Nvidia Corp are to stimulate gaming PC sales.
“The second quarter used to be a slow season, but this year we expect to have an above-seasonal quarter as new products from Intel, Nvidia and AMD [Advanced Micro Devices Inc] are set to hit the market in the quarter,” MSI president Joseph Hsu (徐祥) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“That means we might have a year-on-year growth in revenue in the second quarter,” he said.
The firm booked NT$23.25 billion (US$797.2 million) in revenue for the second quarter of last year, company data showed.
Hsu’s optimistic outlook was also based on a shrinking shortage of key components, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), because an increase in the supply of GPUs from Nvidia would help MSI ship more graphics cards.
Rapidly growing demand for GPUs used in gaming computers and cryptocurrency mining have caused constraints on the supply of graphics cards since the second half of last year, MSI said.
MSI has failed to meet consumer demand for its graphics cards since the second half of last year, and cryptocurrency mining is likely to continue to fuel graphics card demand this year, Hsu said, citing a 20 percent annual increase in the firm’s shipments of graphics cards last year.
Another bright spot is gaming desktops, Hsu said, adding that shipments this year are expected to grow by between 30 percent and 50 percent from last year, repeating last year’s growth rate.
However, gaming notebook computers have stiff competition from Chinese firms, he said.
MSI on Wednesday reported that net profit last year inched up 1 percent year-on-year from NT$4.89 billion to NT$4.94 billion, attributing the lackluster performance to a 7 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar and constant price hikes for key components.
Earnings per share last year rose from NT$5.79 to NT$5.84, while revenue grew 4 percent from NT$102.19 billion to NT$106.42 billion, company data showed.
“A strong local currency and price increases for passive and other key components dragged down gross margin last year,” Hsu said.
Despite the firm’s expansion into high-end products, those unfavorable factors eliminated more than NT$1 billion from its gross profit, which totaled NT$15.03 billion last year, leading gross margin to decline from 14.63 percent to 14.12 percent, he said.
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