Touch solution provider General Interface Solution (GIS) expects revenue for second-half 2022 to be higher than that of the first half, driven by increased output of notebook LCMs, new clients for fingerprint sensors and increased shipments for automotive applications.
Sales in April-May were lower than expected due to lockdown measures in China but they will be improved in June as the firm will exert all-out efforts to ramp up its utilization rates to fulfill required shipments thanks to a gradual easing of the restrictive measures, said industry sources.
Its May revenue came to NT$8.734 billion (US$290.96 million), up 6.73% on month but down 30.52% on year. For January-May, revenue totaled NT$45.05 billion, decreasing 7% from a year earlier, according to the company.
Its sales will improve quarter by quarter in the second half and its performance for all of 2022 is likely to be on par with that recorded in the previous year, added the sources.
It also expects supply chain shipments to improve in the third quarter but remains conservative about overall demand from the electronics sector, depending on the pace of inventory digestion at individual end-market vendors.
All GIS notebook LCM capacity will come online by late June 2022, ramping up its notebook LCM output to 1.5 million units hereafter from the over one million units currently.
As a result, shipments of notebook LCMs will account for 30-40% of GIS total revenue in 2022 compared to 20% a year earlier, whereas its shipments for tablet applications are likely to drop to 50-60%, from 60% previously and those for handset applications to go below 10%, said the sources.
In 2022, GIS will begin shipping capacitive fingerprint sensors for entry-level smartphone models to be launched by a US handset vendor, and it has been shipping ultrasonic under-screen fingerprint sensors for flagship models from Samsung Electronics for years, according to industry sources.
As the global smartphone market is heading for headwinds in 2022, GIS may not be able to realize its goal of shipping over NT$10 billion (US$340 million) worth of fingerprint solutions in the year, said company chairman and president Chou Hsien-ying.
The goal now looks like to be realized in 2023-2024, Chou added.
GIS is also keen on developing diverse fingerprint sensing solutions for use in IoT and other emerging application markets, including some ultrasonic models that can be applied under the surface of different materials such as metal and glass.
Article translated by Steve Shen
