Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s No. 3 multilayer ceramic capacitor supplier, yesterday gave an upbeat business outlook for next quarter, as robust demand for high-end products has helped to lift its book-to-bill ratio and keep inventory healthy.
Premium passive components used in vehicles, and industrial and medical devices account for 75 percent of the company’s overall revenue, compared with 30 percent in 2017, after it spent two-and-half years optimizing its product and customer lineups, Yageo said.
Yageo’s goal is to boost that share to 80 percent by 2023, with revenue contributions from the automotive segment rising to 22 percent from 18 percent at present, Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) told an online media briefing after the company’s annual general meeting in New Taipei City’s Xindian District (新店).
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
“Yageo’s new structure is very different from that of the past,” Chen said. “We are no longer heavily dependent on the greater Chinese market to grow our business.”
Yageo is benefiting from growing demand for high-end passive components from Europe, Japan and the US, Chen said.
Last month’s sales were evidence of that, he said.
Sales last month increased 3.37 percent to NT$9.51 billion (US$339.73 million) from a month earlier, bucking a downtrend that was commonly seen in the past as Yageo’s Chinese customers entered inventory counting season in June.
The company said that its diverse product and customer portfolios have helped shield it from the ups and downs of the consumer electronics market.
Due to greater exposure to China’s consumer electronics market, Yageo’s global rivals saw their customers collecting excessive inventory due to poor sales in the market.
“We see that our customers have healthy inventory. Orders and customer demand are keeping good momentum,” Chen said. “We are still keeping our [book-to-bill] ratio at a high level. Growth momentum remains strong in the third quarter.”
Most production lines are running at more than 90 percent utilization, he said.
To cope with robust customer demand, Yageo expects capital spending to make up 33 percent of the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization this year, and 28 percent next year, before slipping below 20 percent in 2023.
Commenting on Yageo’s partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) to make chips for electric vehicles, Chen said that it would help double Yageo’s revenue from Hon Hai.
Yageo shareholders yesterday approved a planned distribution of NT$10 per common share, including NT$2 per share from its capital surplus.
The firm reported earnings per share of NT$27.58 for last year.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence