Actro completes Plant 2 in Vietnam in 2Q...Actuator production will gain a boost

Actro, a maker of smartphone camera module actuators, will complete their Plant 2 in Vietnam in the second quarter. The existing Plant 1 in Vietnam will be exclusively used for actuators, and Plant 2 will be responsible for producing actuator parts and materials. The company plans to actively respond to increasing demand for actuators.

“Plant 2 is about to be completed in Vietnam in the second quarter,” an Actro official said on the 8th. “We are going to start production in the third quarter and mass production in the fourth quarter,” he added. The actuator is a miniature drive for the smartphone camera module. Actro produces autofocus (AF), optical image stabilization (OIS), and variable beam limiting device (IRIS) actuators.

Actro will move the parts and materials production equipment for the actuator from Plant 1 to Plant 2 in Vietnam. Now the company is producing actuators, parts and materials in Plant 1. It plans to increase the production efficiency through the division of labor. In Plant 2, it is also considering product internalization and sales. Plant 2 (Phu Tho) and Plant 1 (Hanoi) are one hour away from each other.

Actro supplies rear camera actuators to smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo through Samsung Electro-Mechanics. Recently, the demand has increased greatly due to the installation of multi-cameras in smartphones. Last year, it was assessed that performance was expanded by mass production of variable beam limiting device actuators following the existing autofocus and camera shake compensation devices. The actual sales of Actro last year were estimated at 105.9bn won (up 16% YoY) and operating profit of 18.6bn won (up 30% YoY).

This year’s outlook is also positive. The number of smartphones adopting multi-camera is increasing, and the sales of 5X optical zoom products developed for Chinese customers are expected to increase. Researcher Park Jong-Sun at Eugene Investment & Securities said, “This year’s earnings will continue to rise due to the increase in supply and unit price.” “The optical 5X zoom camera sales, which were developed to supply to Chinese customers, will be reflected in 2Q~3Q results,” he added. Researcher Park’s forecast of Actro’s sales this year is 150.2 billion won and operating profit is 26.5 billion won.

Actro was established in 2012. There are a number of former Samsung Electro-Mechanics employees there. The head office is in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. It became the first partner of Samsung Electro-Mechanics in 2017, and it was listed on KOSDAQ last August. Actuators accounted for more than 90% of the company’s total sales.