Touch panel maker Young Fast Optoelectronics has announced net profits of NT$810 million (US$26.46 million) for the third quarter of 2010, down 17% sequentially. EPS for the quarter was NT$6.09.
Revenues for the third quarter totaled NT$4.72 billion, up 12% sequentially. Gross margin was 29.5%, down from 32.9% in the second quarter.
Young Fast chairman TJ Lin noted that revenues in 2011 will increase around 30% on year, and capex for the year will increase to NT$2.5 billion, up from NT$1.5 billion in 2010. Capex for 2011 is mainly for capacity expansion of medium-size products, which will be the major revenues growth driver in 2011.
Young Fast started shipping medium-size touch panels in the third quarter of 2010, and revenues from medium-size touch panels will account for 10-20% of its total revenues in 2011.
For the touch panel maker's capacity expansion plans, monthly capacity for medium-size touch panels will be 300,000 units in the first half of 2011, and rise to 500,000 units in the second half of the year.
Lin indicated that Young Fast is optimistic about demand for single-glass/single-film (G/F) products and is currently focusing on producing such designs. Lin added that G/F structure products will take a significant market share in 2011 and Young Fast may use G/F produce small-size products when the technology is mature enough.
G/F is more competitive in terms of production costs as the technology uses one film less than G/F/F structure technology, and has higher sensitivity in terms of touch response, Lin said, adding that small-size G/F products are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2011.
Small-size capacitive touch panels for handsets will be the another important growth driver in 2011, as the segment's revenue share is expected to exceed the share of resistive touch panels and reach 60%, Lin noted.
Current monthly capacity of small-size touch panels is about 12 million units, and will increase to 15 million units in the first half of 2011, and to 20 million units in the second half. Capacity for small-size touch panels is for both capacitive and resistive technologies.