Gelonghui, March 25, 丨 Qiu Tai Technology (01478.HK) announced that the annual revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 was approximately RMB 12.531 billion, down about 8.9% year on year; annual gross profit was approximately RMB 509 million, down about 6.0% year on year, and annual gross margin was about 4.1%; annual profit was approximately RMB 83.531 million, a decrease of about 50.9% year on year, and basic profit per share was RMB 0.069 yuan.
The decline in revenue was mainly due to macroeconomic factors, global smartphone sales declined this year compared to the previous year, leading to a drop in demand for camera modules and fingerprint recognition modules used in smartphones. The Group's sales volume of camera modules fell by about 11.9% year on year.
The main reasons why gross margin is still low are: (i) Affected by macroeconomic factors, global smartphone sales volume declined, market competition intensified, and unit prices and profit margins were squeezed. At the same time, the Group's sales volume of camera modules used in smartphones declined year-on-year, causing the Group's revenue to drop compared to the previous year, and fixed costs such as depreciation of the unit product rose; (ii) the RMB exchange rate was still weak during the year. The median price was adjusted from 6.9646 in early 2023 to 7.0827 at the end of 2023, depreciating about 1.7%. The average exchange rate of the whole year was about 7.0467, down about 4.77% from about 6.7261 the previous year, and the spot exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar was usually higher than the median price mentioned above, so Material costs for dollar-denominated import settlements remain high, which has a negative impact on gross margin; and (iii) although the vehicle camera module business has made significant progress compared to the previous year, it is still generally still in the investment and market development stage, so capacity utilization still needs to be improved, affecting the overall gross profit margin.
The main reasons for the decrease in profit were: (i) operating income decreased by approximately 8.9% compared to the previous year; and (ii) the operations of an associated company invested by the Group remained suboptimal during the year, and the amount of loss increased compared to the previous year.