Leading industrial PC maker Advantech Co (研華) on Friday reported record revenue and profit for this year’s first quarter, but said component shortages, as well as COVID-19 lockdowns and logistics constraints in China, would affect its revenue outlook in the second quarter.
“Benefiting from steady recovery from major markets and strong demand for new energy such as electric vehicles, solar and wind power, Advantech continuously outperformed in the first quarter of 2022,” Advantech chief financial officer and Eric Chen (陳清熙), who is also president of general management, said in a statement.
The company said its book-to-bill ratio remained high at 1.36 percent from January to March, and the overall delivery lead time is gradually improving, thanks to improving product sales amid a recovery in global demand.
Photo: CNA
Advantech stands to benefit from smart factory upgrades driven by new infrastructure projects, with robust demand from renewable power and electric vehicle sectors, analysts said.
First-quarter revenue was NT$16.12 billion (US$546.81 million), up 2 percent quarterly and 22.5 percent annually, as the company’s embedded Internet of Things (IoT) group, applied computing group and service-IoT group reported strong sales in the first quarter, while the cloud-IoT group saw sales slightly decline partly due to component shortages, Advantech said.
North America and Europe registered sales growth of 32 percent and 31 percent from a year earlier respectively, while emerging markets recorded 70 percent rise during the three-month period, it said.
Net profit last quarter totaled NT$2.57 billion, up 13 percent from the previous quarter and 34 percent higher than a year earlier, it said.
Gross margin was 38.2 percent last quarter, compared with 38.11 percent in the previous quarter, but down from 39.58 percent a year earlier.
Earnings per share were NT$3.32, compared with NT$2.93 the previous quarter and NT$2.48 a year ago, company data showed.
Given a notable demand recovery, the company had planned to expand capacity by 30 percent by the end of last year, with new capacity likely to come online next year at the earliest.
Second quarter demand is expected to be solid based on new business opportunities in applications related to factory automation and energy conservation.
“However, the impacts from component shortages, the Kunshan lockdown last month and logistics constraints remain, which might affect second-quarter revenue by 8 percent to 10 percent,” as shipments would be delayed until later this year, Chen said.
“Advantech will leverage our capacities in Linkou [Taiwan] and Kunshan [China] to minimize overall impacts and maintain operational stability,” he said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS