P-Two Industries Inc. reported year-to-February pretax profits of more than NT$50 million, up more than seven times over than the year-earlier period and equivalent to NT$1.4 a share at least. The company attributes the successful result to the hot sales of CD-R drives and increasing demand for the company's new product, FPC connectors. The company's plant in Suzhou in China has also begun to break even, and that also helps. P-Two is the world's leading producer of connectors for computer peripherals accessories as CD-ROM, CD-RW and DVD, digital camera and cellular phone.

Given the sharp growth in the deliveries of IO connectors and FPC connectors, the company expects its sales to rise over 30 percent this year, enabling its pretax profits of whole year to increase over 70 percent.

I/O connectors account for around 50 percent of the company's total sales, and FPC connectors account for 30 percent, while communications-enable connectors contribute around 5 percent. P-Two's I/O connector has already won a global market share of over 50 percent. The world's first and second largest CD-R companies, Lite-On IT Corp. and Korea's LG Electronics Inc., are P-Two's major clients. Besides, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Philips Electronics, BenQ Corp., Behavior Tech Computer corp. and Asustek Computer Inc. are also the company's customer. Given the prosperity of CD-R industry, the company enjoys growing I/O connector production.

P-Two's FPC connectors are applied in DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives. At present, P-Two's FPC connector accounts for around 17 percent of share in the market. Besides its application in DVD-ROM and CD-RW drives, the product is also used on LCDs, notebook computers and digital cameras. The important achievement in exploring the customer base will bring up the company's deliveries of FPC connectors.

Separately, the company has also begun to deliver communications connectors to Motorola, Benq, GVC Corp., Compal Communication Inc. and Arima Communication Corp., etc. P-Two has also been asked by its customers to roll out the development of related products, such as metal domes.

P-Two has three major production bases, one locally and the other two in China, at Dongguan (Guangdong province) and Suzhou respectively. The plant in Dongguan delivers the orders from the Taiwan plant. The plant in Suzhou moved into profitability in December 2001. (NT$35 = US$1)