LCD panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday said net profit last quarter more than halved from a year earlier as demand for handset panels dwindled and prices declined.
Net profit tumbled to NT$873 million (US$29.35 million) in the first three months of this year, compared with net profit of NT$1.83 billion in the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.27, down from NT$0.57.
Blended average selling prices plummeted 20 percent to US$40, from US$50 a year earlier, the statement said.
However, HannStar last quarter delivered an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 31 percent, beating bigger rivals Innolux Corp’s (群創) 19.5 percent and AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) 16 percent.
Shipments of small-to-mid-size panels last quarter shrank 6.84 percent to 109 million units, compared with 117 million a year earlier, the company said.
Shipments of large panels more than doubled to 600,000 units from 270,000 units.
Mobile phone panels were the company’s biggest revenue source, making up 61 percent of NT$4.44 billion in revenue last quarter, down from 69 percent a year earlier.
Revenue last quarter sank 28.62 percent from NT$6.22 billion a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, revenue contracted about 28 percent from NT$6.15 billion. Net profit plunged 48 percent from about NT$1.67 billion, or NT$0.51 per share, in the fourth quarter of last year.
Separately, LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) posted a loss of NT$1.06 billion for last quarter, compared with a loss of NT$97.87 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company blamed the fall on weak demand for mobile phone panels and price declines.
Gross margin last quarter worsened to minus-0.88 percent from 8.64 percent in the previous quarter and 31.99 percent a year earlier.
Last quarter was the second unprofitable quarter for Chungwa Picture. In the first quarter of last year, the company made NT$1.7 billion in net profit, or NT$0.26 per share.
The company said panel prices are stabilizing, which would help boost this quarter’s revenue.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
RSS