Touch module and sensor supplier TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) yesterday gave a lukewarm outlook for the second half of this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the industry’s seasonal patterns.
Amid pandemic-related transportation restrictions and social distancing, online learning and remote working fueled demand for notebook computers and tablets in the first half, TPK chairman Michael Chiang (江朝瑞) told reporters after an annual shareholders’ meeting in Taipei.
“This was a big surprise for us, as we thought demand would have dipped [in the first half],” Chiang said. “I think there will be no explosive [revenue] growth in the second half, but a mild one.”
Photo: CNA
The company also saw robust demand for silver nanowire touch modules for 85-inch electronic whiteboards from schools, Chiang said, adding that TPK expects shipments of silver-nanowire touch modules used in large electronic whiteboards to grow 30 percent annually this year.
Like most of its peers, TPK usually sees revenue increase significantly in the second half of the year compared with the first half, as customers start restocking inventories ahead of annual product launches and year-end shopping sprees.
Over the past five years, TPK reported at least 30 percent more revenue in the July-to-December period than in the first six months of the year, company data showed.
“The second half of this year will be relatively flat,” Chiang said.
Average selling prices would continue to spiral down, Chiang said, adding that the company has tried to save costs to keep its business afloat
The company’s board of directors did not propose the distribution of a cash dividend, as it only eked out a profit of NT$209 million (US$7.03 million), or NT$0.51 a share, last year.
TPK had a gross margin of 3.5 percent and an operating margin of only 0.1 percent last year.
To improve its profitability, TPK yesterday said that it is diversifying from its core touch sensor and module business, and is looking for higher-margin businesses.
For the first time, TPK is attempting to build local manufacturing capacity in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山) to make insoles for athletic footwear and protective gear for sports using 3D printing technology, Chiang said.
The company is also working on two new projects with customers in the information technology sector, he said, without disclosing the names of its two partners.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS