Smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday reported that revenue last month dropped to the lowest in four years due to a slow season in the first quarter.
Consolidated revenue fell 21.37 percent month-on-month to NT$2.57 billion (US$83.9 million), the lowest since February 2019, when revenue hit NT$2.53 billion, company data showed.
Last month’s figure was 2.11 percent lower than the NT$2.61 billion it posted a year earlier, the data showed.
Photo: AFP
The sales figure is largely in line with the Taichung-based company’s guidance.
On Jan. 12, Largan chief executive officer Adam Lin (林恩平) told an online investors’ conference that it expected last month’s sales to be lower than January’s, and that this month’s figures would also be lower than last month’s, based on a poor global economic outlook and weak demand in the handset market.
Global smartphone shipments declined 11.3 percent year-on-year to 1.21 billion units last year, US-based market consultancy International Data Corp said in a report on Jan. 25, citing the impact of dampened consumer demand, high inflation and economic uncertainties.
US research firm Gartner Inc in a report on Jan. 31 predicted that global shipments of smartphones, tablets and PCs would fall by 4.4 percent this year, after falling by 11.9 percent last year.
Largan, a technological leader in the handset camera lens industry, 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 consisted of 10 percent to 20 percent of Largan’s sales last month, the firm said in a statement.
Lenses for products of 10 megapixels or more were 50 percent to 60 percent of its sales, while lenses for products of eight megapixels contributed less than 10 percent and lenses for products with lower resolutions contributed 20 percent to 30 percent, it said.
As a leading maker of optical lens modules, Largan’s products are used in smartphones, computer mice, automobiles, digital devices and CCTV cameras, as well as microscopes, telescopes and slide projectors.
In the first two months of this year, Largan’s cumulative revenue totaled NT$5.82 billion, down 8.7 percent from NT$6.38 billion a year earlier.
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