Alternate Telecom Play (Materials) w/ Cyclical Trade History
Telecom build out in 2nd half or 2018 has been confirmed by multiple companies to be primed and heavy. First report of year is seasonally week and reflected across sector. AXT is traditionally conservative with forward looking statements, so beats are regular and plausible. New factory is almost completed and 3D Sensing capability has already been confirmed for further exploration. Technical trade up to $9 PT coincides with resistance line after price has managed to sustain within fib levels during recent periods of volatility.
AXTI today provided an update to its expectations for the first quarter 2018 financial results, which will be announced on April 25, 2018. The company now expects first quarter revenue to be in the range of $24.0 million to $24.5 million, due to government-ordered mandatory factory shutdowns in Beijing caused by severe air pollution that occurred late in the quarter.
From February 27 to March 31 over 300 manufacturing companies were intermittently shut down for a total of ten days, or 30 percent of the calendar days in this period. The revised revenue expectation is down from the company’s previous guidance of $26 million to $27 million, provided at its fourth quarter earnings announcement on February 21, 2018.
"We were disappointed that air quality conditions in Beijing triggered mandatory shutdowns late in the quarter, which prevented AXT from meeting our guidance expectations,” said Morris Young, chief executive officer. “We were working hard to narrow the gap but the last week of March alone had three shutdown days. The demand environment, however, remains solid as AXT substrates continue to perform well, particularly in applications where customer requirements are most stringent. We are optimistic about our business opportunity in 2018, and believe we are well-positioned to take advantage of positive trends in a number of applications, including high-end LED lighting, infrared and other sensors requiring low-EPD wafers, passive optical networks, data center connectivity and satellite solar cells.
We are pleased to report that we have completed the first phase of facilitization of our new facility in Dingxing, China, have installed wafer processing equipment and have produced initial wafers at this site that can be used for qualification,” Young said. “With the continued solid execution by our team, we are on schedule with our plans and pleased with our progress to date. This new technically advanced facility gives us the opportunity to plan our business for our next stage of growth and to support the longer-term capacity requirements of our customers.”