Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday said it expects revenue to grow at a quarterly pace of 10 percent this quarter, thanks to shipment delays of some automotive devices, computers and consumer electronics due to key component shortages.
The company’s revenue last quarter grew to NT$41.86 billion (US$1.49 billion) — its highest level in about seven quarters.
“The fourth quarter is normally an off-season ... but the third quarter [revenue] was affected by component and material shortages. We believe it should be okay to [expect] 10 percent revenue growth in the fourth quarter,” Lite-On president Anson Chiu (邱森彬) told investors in an online conference yesterday.
Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei Times
The company was concerned about the chip shortage, but it altered its product designs at the beginning of this year to minimize the impact, Chiu said, adding that China’s electricity curbs have had a very limited effect on Lite-On as it has expanded capacity in Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Automotive electronics and cloud-based and artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) devices, both of which deliver a higher gross margin than the corporate average, would be the main growth drivers this quarter, extending last quarter’s robust growth momentum, he said.
The company also maintains an optimistic outlook for next year as its optoelectronics business is expected to grow 15 to 20 percent year-on-year, Chiu said.
Lite-On’s optoelectronics business, which offers outdoor lighting, automotive electronics and optoelectronic product solutions, contributed 20 percent to its revenue last quarter.
Its cloud and AIoT business made up 28 percent of the company’s revenue, with products including electronic components used in data centers, servers and smart devices.
Electronic components for information technology and consumer electronics products such as notebook computers and game consoles were the biggest source of revenue, making up about 52 percent, the company said.
Lite-On yesterday reported that net profit grew 3 percent to NT$3.08 billion last quarter from NT$2.99 billion a year earlier, thanks to robust demand for power units used in cloud computing devices, electric vehicles and PCs.
That represented a quarterly decline of 24 percent from NT$4.03 billion, after some impairment losses were booked.
Earnings per share rose to NT$1.33 last quarter from NT$1.29 a year earlier, but dropped from NT$1.74 in the second quarter.
Gross margin rose to 19.3 percent last quarter from 19 percent a year earlier, but declined from 19.7 percent in the second quarter.
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
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
RSS