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.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS