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Advantech to See Rosy Q2 as Orders Steadily Come In

2014/05/02 | By Steve Chuang

After attaining a single-month high in revenue in March, Advantech Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese supplier of industrial PCs and embedded systems, will likely see rosier performance in Q2, 2014, driven by booked orders having exceeded 70% of its goal for the quarter, said the president, Chaney Ho, at a forum held in late April regarding applications of green buildings in Taiwan.

The firm earlier reported consolidated revenue of NT$3.098 billion (US$103.2 million) for March, surging 30% month on month as a record high, mostly thanks to strong shipment to Europe, which skyrocketed 52% year-on-year, along with brisk sales in Greater China, which grew nearly 20%. Among the firm's business units, the iService Group achieved the strongest revenue growth of 35% compared to last March, followed by the Embedded Core Group with a 28% increase.

Ho confirmed then that the company has received so far more than 70% of target orders for the second quarter, therefore being confident of posting higher consolidated revenue in April than in March. The president added optimistically that his company will likely witness monthly revenue continually exceed US$100 million in the months to come, and finish the first half of this year with better performance than that of last year.

The president's optimism about brighter outlook in the second quarter is based on, he noted, three positive market factors: surging customer demand in Europe, strong restocking by Chinese industrial equipment manufacturers and the persistently bullish U.S. market.

To keep pace with strong market demand, Ho said that his company has kicked off the second-phase construction of its R&D and manufacturing base in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, which involves some NT$5 billion (US$166.667 million) in investment and help double the current capacity to drive growth of revenue after completion.

Ho stressed that the expanded base will become Advantech's second-largest after that for the Embedded Core Group in China, and will achieve economies of scale in production to further upgrade the company's overall operating efficiency and global competitiveness.

The company scored consolidated revenue of NT$30.66 billion (US$1.022 billion) last year, and recorded a single-quarter high of NT$8.149 billion (US$271.66 million) for Q1, 2014,  soaring 23.4% year-on-year despite a low season. Institutional investors estimate the firm's EPS (earnings per share) for the quarter to hit a record high of up to NT$2. (SC)