Taipei, March 11, 2010 (CENS)--Ability Enterprise Co., one of Taiwan`s leading contract manufacturers of digital still cameras (DSCs), will see a 40% annual growth in shipments to challenge 21.28 million DSCs this year from last year`s 15.2 million.

Outsourcing by Japanese brands have been good for Taiwan`s Altek Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world`s largest contract manufacturers of DSCs in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Japan dominates 80% of the world`s DSC market without being edged out by South Korea as in the TV and automobile sectors, with Taiwan subcontractors helping to back Japan`s major role.

Ability registered US$1.14 billion in sales last year, up 9.3% year-on-year, but posted flat gross profit margin of 11.1%.

With additional revenues from disposal of assets and investments, Ability scored NT$2.666 billion and NT$2.152 billion in pretax and after-tax earnings last year, up 63.7% and 58.8% year-on-year, respectively. Based on the capitalization of US$136.68 million, the company registered US$0.19 and US$0.156 in pretax and after-tax earnings per share last year, hitting historic-high records.

Ability general manager M.J. Tseng said his company will be able to ship over 4.7 million DSCs in the first quarter of this year, surging 124% year-on-year and down 9% from the preceding quarter.

Shipping new models will allow Ability to post shipments in the second quarter exceeding that in the preceding quarter. The company predicted it would ship approximately 10 million DSCs in the first half of this year.

(by Ben Shen)