IPC Firms Saw Sales Jump in First Two Months

Taipei, April 3, 2006 (CENS)--Thanks to the influx of orders from diverse areas such as the Internet and communications, medical, national defense, security monitoring, automobile, and point of sales (POS) sectors, domestic manufacturers of industrial personal computers (IPCs) saw substantial increase in sales in the first two months of this year.

Of local makers, Axiomtek Corp., which specializes in applied computing platforms, saw sales grow 11-fold year-on-year in the first two months of 2006. Firich Enterprises Co. and DFI-ACP Corp. each saw a doubling of their sales in the first two months. Others like Flytech Group International Inc., Portwell Inc., and Posiflex Inc. each enjoyed 70% year-on-year growth in sales in the same comparison period. Posiflex was the most profitable among domestic IPC firms by grabbing NT$2.07 (US$0.06 at US$1:NT$32) in earnings per share in the first two months of this year.

Posiflex said it could enjoy higher profit margins than its competitors because it has made inroads into the U.S. and Japanese marketplaces with own-branded POS systems. The company estimated it would generate an EPS of NT$10 (US$0.31) last year.

Since the second half of last year, Firich has been aggressively pursuing the lottery machine market. The company said it has won sports lottery-machines bids in four provinces of mainland China, making it the sole domestic IPC firm to enter the mainland's lottery-machine market. With the addition of contract orders from Greece-based Intralot Co., the company predicted the lottery machines would contribute more than NT$1 billion (US$31.25 million) to its annual sales this year.

An institutional investor said Firich would see sales double to reach NT$2 billion (US$62.5 million) with EPS expected to top NT$10 (US$0.31) this year

Focusing on sales on a special project basis, Portwell, Taiwan's largest producer of POS devices, said it has orders of NT$1.5 billion (US$46.87 million) in hand for delivery by the end of next year. The company estimated it would see its after-tax EPS reach NT$5.08 (US$0.15) on sales of NT$2.25 billion (US$70.31 million) this year.

Axiomtek stated it saw substantial sales growth in some major export outlets last year. At present, Europe accounts for over 40% of the company's total sales, followed by the U.S., Taiwan, Japan, mainland China, and other areas.

Embedded applied computing platforms were the hottest-selling item among Axiomtek's product lines, followed by industry-class tablet PCs, LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors, industrial PCs, industrial automation equipment, Internet security applied software, and Web storage equipment.