Taiwan's Max Echo Technology, dedicated to producing inductors and ferrite chip beads for niche applications, is confident that its 2022 revenues will attain a double-digit growth with margins trending upward despite unfavorable macro environments and rising materials costs, according to company chairman CC Huang.
Huang said at a pre-listing conference that the growth momentum this year will mainly come from automotive and 5G base station applications. The company is slated to be listed on the Taipei Exchange in mid-May.
Max Echo's 2021 revenues rose 38% on year to a record high of NT$707 million (US$24.19 million), and net earnings doubled to NT$58 million. And over 60% of the revenues came from shipments to clients in the segments of automotive electronics, networking, industrial control and medical equipment, with the remainder from energy management and consumer electronics applications, according to company statistics.
The same tallies show the company's revenues grew over 15% sequentially to NT$190 million in the first quarter of 2022, bolstered by strong demand for niche applications mainly automotive electronics and industrial control engineering, compared to most commodity passive components still facing inventory adjustments at clients.
Huang disclosed the company has seen clear order visibility for automotive and industrial applications throughout the first half of 2022, and automotive clients in Europe even have placed orders through the second quarter of 2023.
Huang estimated the revenue ratio for automotive applications will rise to over 40% in 2022 from 35%, stressing that the company has yet to receive any notification from automotive clients about order cuts despite unfavorable macro environments and prolonged uneven components supply.
Max Echo raised its quotes for inductors by 10-15% in 2021 to reflect increased production costs, and will not rule out new price hikes later this year in response to ever-rising prices for conductive silver pastes, according to Huang.
