Smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Saturday reported that revenue last month dropped to the lowest in 36 months due to the slow season in the first quarter and fewer working days during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Consolidated revenue fell 30.05 percent month-on-month to NT$2.61 billion (US$92.8 million), the lowest since February 2019, when revenue declined to NT$2.53 billion, company data showed.
Last month’s figure was 18.7 percent lower than the NT$3.21 billion it posted a year earlier, the data showed.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
The sales figure is largely in line with the Taichung-based company’s guidance.
On Jan. 13, Largan told an investors’ conference that it expected January sales to be lower than December’s and that February’s figures might be even lower, as tight supply for some components remains unresolved.
Major handset brands have also decreased purchases of high-performance lenses as component shortages, price inflation and uncertainty due to COVID-19 are expected to continue to weigh on the smartphone market in the first half of the year, Boston-based research firm Strategy Analytics said in a note on Jan. 27.
Global smartphone sales declined 1.7 percent year-on-year to 379.46 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc said in a report on Wednesday, citing component shortages and supply-chain issues.
Largan counts Apple Inc, Sony Corp, Samsung Electronics Inc and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) among its customers.
High-margin lenses for smartphone cameras of 20 megapixels or more contributed 10 to 20 percent to Largan’s sales last month, the firm said on Saturday.
Lenses for products of 10 megapixels or more contributed 50 to 60 percent to its sales, while lenses for products of eight megapixels contributed 10 percent and lenses for products with lower resolutions contributed 10 to 20 percent, it said.
As a leading maker of optical lens modules, Largan also produces voice coil motors, contact lenses and sleep monitors.
Aiming to expand into the auto sector, the company last year set up Largan Industrial Optics Co (大根光學) to focus on producing camera lenses for vehicles.
However, automotive lens products so far contribute little to the company’s revenue.
In the first two months of the year, Largan’s cumulative revenue totaled NT$6.35 billion, down 18.75 percent from NT$7.81 billion in the same period last year.
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