BenQ Materials, a major polarizer film manufacturer, is actively shifting its business model. It has decided that both functional film and healthcare products will be its focus going forward and that it is expecting that its healthcare business will take up over 50% of its revenue by 2026.
The global medical equipment market continues to grow, reaching an estimated USD$57.73 billion in 2022 and is expected to rise to $85 billion by 2030, according to BenQ Materials' Chairman, Z.C. Chen. After the acquisition of Web-Pro, 27% revenue of BenQ's comes from medical equipment, a powerful uptick. Chen says that the company hopes to have 50% of its revenue coming from the healthcare business by 2026.
Functional films, including products like polarizers, touch panel optical films, and battery separators, continue to be the core products for BenQ. The films comprise 73% of the total revenue in Q2 this year. On individual product categories, stock of healthcare products that remains from supply chain issues due to the pandemic will be depleted in Q3 and Q4, and battery separator films saw a gloomy first half of the year, and especially so in Q2. Chen says that demand for panels have gradually recovered this year, and the operating rate of polarizer films rose as a result. He expects this momentum from panels and polarizer films to continue in Q3 and the operating rate of both product categories in Q3 will be the same as that of Q2.
BenQ's revenue shot up after acquiring Web-Pro. Chen says that he believes that the two companies will work well together. BenQ would hopefully have the opportunity to supply to a few of the global top 25 medical equipment companies, who have been Web-Pro's biggest clients. In response to the YoY fall of gross margin of the healthcare business despite the fact that it's BenQ's strong pursuit at the moment, Chen says that it was due to the dilution effect after acquisition of Web-Pro. Gross margin of healthcare products range from 20–70%, and Web-Pro's product was around the median. Chen says the company still expects the healthcare business to contribute much more of the revenue this year than in 2022.
Chen says that most areas in the company will continue to grow despite China's sluggish recovery, and in fact, BenQ Materials is seeing quite impressive sales in China. The company's consolidated revenue in Q2 this year is NTD$4.635 billion (USD$13.75 million) and net profit attributable to parent company NTD$144 million. 1H23's consolidated revenue amounts to NTD$8.702 billion, and net profit attributable to parent company NTD$194 million.
Article translated by Julie Chang
