The government must “create more clean energy for businesses to buy,” Largan Precision Co (大立光) chief executive officer Adam Lin (林恩平) said yesterday after the handset camera lens supplier’s annual general meeting in Taichung.
“After two to three years of internal discussion, we have decided that buying green energy is our best option, but most of the green energy available in Taiwan has already been bought up,” he said.
Largan would have to meet demands by customers such as Apple Inc, which is aggressively decarbonizing.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
“By 2030, every single Apple product around the world will be carbon neutral. From design to manufacturing to shipping, usage and recycling,” the US company said on its Web site.
“We will not make comments on any single customer, but decarbonizing is the global trend,” Lin said.
Holly Chu (朱佑翎), a senior associate with the law firm Eiger, said that there are only two major sources of renewable energy in Taiwan: solar and wind.
“We are limited as to how many solar farms we can build in Taiwan because of space constraints, it is a maturing market,” Chu said. “I believe there is enough offshore wind farm development to meet Taiwan’s renewable energy needs, but only if future developments go according to schedule.”
Largan shareholders approved the company’s plan to issue a cash dividend of NT$91.5 per share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$182.9, the highest payout in the company’s history.
Shareholders also approved the company’s plan to issue dividends twice a year, instead of the current once a year.
Lin told shareholders the company would continue to focus on handset camera lenses for the rest of the year, but would step up efforts to improve its technology and raise its production scale to maintain its competitiveness.
He said that the order outlook for this quarter is positive, but shortages of many components have affected the smartphone specification upgrade cycle, which would also hit the company’s gross margin.
While the cost of raw materials has been rising, the company has no plans to increase prices, he added.
The company would also continue to invest in the automotive camera lens business by establishing Largan Industrial Optics Co (大根光學工業) to support clients’ demand, Lin said.
The new subsidiary, with paid-in capital of NT$1 billion, has two major clients, he said, without elaborating.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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