Record Revenue Without Matching Profit Growth
台達電 held its third-quarter earnings call on 10月29日, reporting consolidated third-quarter revenue of 1970.59億元, up 7.53% quarter-over-quarter and 31.09% year-over-year, a record high; gross profit of 671.55億元, with gross margin at 34.08%, down about 1.52 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and 0.79 percentage points year-over-year, falling below the 35% threshold. Net profit attributable to the parent company was 234.95億元, down 6.54% quarter-over-quarter and up 26.28% year-over-year, with EPS of 9.04元, the second-highest on record, as profit growth failed to fully keep pace with revenue expansion.
39億元 Writedown Erodes Gross Margin
Addressing the decline in gross margin, CFO 余博文 said the third-quarter provision for inventory writedown was about 39億元, accounting for about 1.7% of revenue, becoming a key factor eroding gross margin, mainly due to rush orders from customers, design and quality specification changes, and long-short material issues from suppliers, which caused a buildup of raw material and product inventories. Chairman 鄭平 said recent supply chain long-short material issues, adjustments in customer pull-in schedules, and product specification changes have led to higher inventories. Whether at the company or at customers, uneven supply can cause inventory increases, but this is a short-term phenomenon, with destocking expected to proceed in the fourth quarter and the related inventories to be pulled by customers in the fourth quarter.
AI Order Visibility Remains High
On market concerns that delays in AI data center construction could widen inventory pressure, 鄭平 stressed that order visibility remains high, with only actual delivery timing potentially moved forward or delayed to accommodate customers' data center construction, rather than demand disappearing. He noted that the AI industry has grown very rapidly over the past two years, with components and capacity supply generally tight, so the company must prepare materials in advance and maintain sufficient safety stock to retain flexibility to meet customer demand, as without early preparation there will be no capacity in the future. Safety stock levels may be higher than in the past, a bit larger than before, but still need to be properly managed. 劉亮甫, Vice President of the Corporate Investment Department, added that AI data center construction is not a short-term demand lasting only one or two quarters, but a growth trend that could continue for years, during which quarterly fluctuations are inevitable and long-term demand should not be judged on a single quarter's performance. On costs and pricing, 鄭平 said overall material costs have risen about 2% since the beginning of the year, and the company is negotiating price adjustments with customers, with some products possibly reflecting new prices in the fourth quarter or the first quarter of next year.