Hon Hai saw highest sales revenue in Feb. among Taiwan IT firms

Taipei, March 14, 2005 (CENS)--With fewer workdays in February due to the Chinese New Year holidays, domestic electronics firms saw sales slow down in the month, with the exception of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which witnessed revenue shoot up 54.7% from one year earlier to NT$39.59 billion (US$1.27 billion at US$1:NT$31).

Due to the fewer workdays, the island's top-10 electronics firms broadly saw February sales slide approximately 10%.

In terms of cumulative sales posted in the first two months of this year, Hon Hai ranked first with NT$83.8 billion (US$2.7 billion), representing a 64% annual growth. Quanta Computer Inc. stood at the second place with NT$49.6 billion (US$1.6 billion), up 15.4% year-on-year.

Aided by the new orders received at the CeBIT show, the world's largest information technology and telecommunications exhibition running March 10-16 in Hanover, Germany, many domestic electronics firms said they would see sales increase in March.

The world economy has been slumping since the beginning of this year because of the rising oil prices and the weakening U.S. dollar. Some major domestic industrial research institutions, including the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Institute for Information Industry, have predicted domestic major electronics manufacturers would see slowed growth in sales and IT firms would encounter slowdown in production value this year.

In terms of turnover registered in February by domestic major electronics firms, Hon Hai ranked first, followed by Quanta with NT$24.53 billion (US$791.29 million), up 13.8% year-on-year.

Acer Inc., one of Taiwan's top-10 electronics and IT firms, noted it posted NT$19.83 billion (US$639.67 million) in combined sales in February, soaring 23% from the same period of last year. Compal Electronics Inc., one of Taiwan's leading contract manufacturers of notebook personal computers, saw sales grow 24% from a year earlier to NT$15.71 billion (US$506.77 million) in February.

But the world's No.1 chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Corp. had its sales drop 6.5% annually to NT$17.2 billion (US$554.83 million) in February. Other leading IT firms suffering sales decline in that month included AU Optronics Inc., BenQ Inc. and Lite-On Electronics Corp.

AU registered NT$11.51 billion (US$371.29 million) in sales in February, down 7.8% from the same month of last year. BenQ posted a 26% annual decline in combined sales, reaching NT$9.66 billion (US$311.61 million). Lite-On saw a 9% annual decline in sales, reaching NT$10.4 billion (US$335.48 million).

According to a survey made by the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center under the ITRI, the output value of Taiwan's flat-panel display (FDP) industry grew 76% year-on-year last year but the growth rate will slip to only 35% this year.

IEK said domestic IC (integrated circuit) sector will see annual growth slid to only 6.7% this year from last year's 34%, signaling the advent of a flat-growth period for the robust electronics industry.

The ITRI center noted the international oil prices long hovering at high levels would push up commodity prices and have an adverse impact on the prospective development of domestic economy.