Liquid-crystal display and projector manufacturer Qisda Co (佳世達) on Thursday said it expected revenue this quarter to be flat or slightly higher than last quarter amid slowing front-loading demand and tariff uncertainty.
Revenue this quarter could still edge up from the previous quarter aided by seasonal upticks, Qisda chairman Peter Chen (陳其宏) told an online earnings conference.
Revenue last quarter rose 7 percent sequentially to NT$53.46 billion (US$1.78 billion).
Photo: CNA
The outlook for the fourth quarter remains uncertain, depending on the outcome of a Section 232 investigation under the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Chen said.
As Taiwanese information and communications technology (ICT) products were previously exempted from US tariffs, any new levies would boost retail prices in the US and dampen US consumer demand, he said.
Overall revenue in the second half would outgrow the first half, but the outlook for its profitability remained unclear, Chen said.
Sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar in May slowed the company’s revenue growth last quarter, Chen said.
Every 1 percent appreciation of the local currency would reduce the company’s revenue by 0.7 percent and cut gross margin by 0.2 percentage points, he said.
The strong local currency has negatively impacted its revenue last quarter, as about 60 to 65 percent of the company’s revenue was denominated in the US dollar, Qisda chief financial officer Jasmin Hung (洪秋金) said.
Net profit fell 46 percent year-on-year last quarter and 26 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$356 million, compared with NT$806 million a year earlier and NT$594 million in the first quarter.
Gross margin fell to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent a year earlier and 17.3 percent the previous quarter.
The company booked a NT$50 million non-operating loss for last quarter.
The US market contributed 28 percent to the company’s revenue last quarter, company president Joe Huang (黃漢州) said.
Qisda is considering establishing new plants in North America — mainly Mexico — as well as in Southeast Asia and other regions, Huang said.
Qisda currently runs plants in Taiwan, Vietnam and China, with some assembly lines in California and Mexico.
By sector, IT business revenue rose 4.18 percent year-on-year, accounting for 53 percent of total revenue last quarter, followed by smart business solutions at 17 percent, medical devices at 14 percent, networking and communications at 10 percent, and others at 6 percent, Qisda said.
Qisda expects its IT business to post annual and quarterly growth this quarter, it said.
The networking and communications business is also to report annual and quarterly growth this quarter, as it expanded its business reach to emerging markets, it said.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS