Touch module and sensor supplier TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) yesterday gave a dismal revenue outlook for this quarter due to order losses.
Revenue is forecast to slump between 20 and 25 percent from NT$32.85 billion (US$1.14 billion) last quarter, TPK chief strategic officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told investors in a teleconference.
Liu attributed the projected contraction mainly to a dearth of new orders.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
“As customers are monitoring how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect sales of end products over the next one to two months, we are conservative about the fourth-quarter outlook,” Liu said. “On top of that, the company is facing a product transition period, meaning new product output will not be as good as before.”
One of TPK’s clients has adjusted its specifications for smartphones and did not place orders for TPK’s touch display lamination services, Liu said.
As a result, TPK expects a continuous decline in revenue from the smartphone segment in the short to medium term, he said.
TPK’s revenue last month dipped 27.2 percent to NT$7.71 billion from NT$10.59 billion in September, and declined 46.7 percent compared with NT$14.48 billion a year earlier, he said.
The smartphone segment is the second-largest revenue source for TPK, making up 34 percent of its total revenue last quarter, a company financial statement showed.
The firm is seeking new business to fill the void over the next few quarters, Liu said.
TPK faces a mounting risk of weakening revenue due to a seasonal downturn, he said.
“The effect of the slow season is usually very severe,” he said.
The company expects to remain profitable this quarter through further improvement in operating efficiency and cost savings, Liu said.
Operating margin is expected to be between 0.5 and 1 percent this quarter, compared with 0.7 percent last quarter, he said.
TPK continues to benefit from growing demand for touch display solutions used in notebook computers and tablets amid remote working and online-learning trends due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TPK chief executive officer Leo Hsieh (謝立群) said.
“The growth momentum for tablets is quite healthy in the fourth quarter, mostly due to the pandemic,” Hsieh said.
The final quarter of the year is usually the peak season for tablets and laptops, he said.
TPK reported that net profit surged about 44 percent quarterly to NT$443 million last quarter, the highest in 10 quarters, boosted by NT$65 million in currency arbitrage gains.
On an annual basis, net profit skyrocketed 93.8 percent from NT$228 million.
Earnings per share jumped to NT$1.09 last quarter from NT$0.76 in the preceding quarter and NT$0.56 a year earlier.
Regular-sized tablets contributed 20 percent to TPK’s revenue last quarter, while notebook computers and larger tablets made up the biggest revenue share of 41 percent, the financial statement showed.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS