Taiwanese nylon maker Chain Yarn Co (展頌) is set to debut shares today on the Emerging Stock Market — a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses — and will use the funds raised to expand nylon filament production next year.
The Taichung-based manufacturer is one of six companies that are scheduled to start trading shares on the Emerging Stock Market this week.
EMERGING FIRMS
The other five are bulk shipping firm Kuang Ming Shipping Corp (光明海運), LED lighting company Excellence Optoelectronic Inc (聯嘉光電), barcode printer manufacturer Godex International Co (科誠), WiMAX operator Vee Time Corp (威達雲端電訊) and storage solution provider Thecus Technology Corp (宏普科技).
Trading on the Emerging Stock Market is restricted to securities firms, by means of negotiations, and therefore are not open to public subscription.
CAPITAL EXPANSION
However, an increasing number of local firms have plans to file for listing applications to tap into capital markets that are expanding thanks to a recovering economy, which the government forecast would grow by 9.98 percent this year compared with a contraction of 1.91 percent last year.
GRETAI Securities Market, which oversees the Emerging Stock Market, said last week it expects to receive more than 100 applications for listing on the preparatory bourse this year.
That number, if achieved, will be a five-year high. There were only 54 applications filed last year, compared with a peak in 2004 of 115 applications, the over-the-counter market said.
In a briefing to investors last week, Chain Yarn president Huang Cheng-yu (黃呈玉) said after listing on the Emerging Stock Market the company plans to apply for official listing on either the Taiwan Stock Exchange or the GRETAI Securities Market by May next year.
Established in May 1988, Chain Yarn has production facilities in Douliu Township (斗六), Yunlin County, and Jhushan Township (竹山), Nantou County. It also owns a branch in Hangzhou, China.
Big customers
The textile manufacturer offers nylon to a number of overseas clients including sporting goods firms North Face Inc, Patagonia Inc, Adidas AG and luggage maker Samsonite Corp.
Nylon is a synthetic polymer commonly used in fabric. It has also been widely applied in parachutes, flak vests, vehicle tires, bridal veils, carpets, musical strings and rope.
According to the company’s statistics, in the first half of the year, nylon filament sales made up 55 percent of the company’s total sales, up 48 percent from last year. Sales contribution from nylon chips, meanwhile, dropped to 40 percent from last year’s 48 percent.
MONTHLY TONNAGE
The change in proportion came after the company this year established a new production line that is capable of churning out 1,200 tonnes a month of nylon filament — raw materials that offer higher profit margins than nylon chips.
The company plans to set up a new nylon filament production line next year, which will boost monthly capacity by another 600 tonnes.
Chain Yarn made a net profit of NT$170 million (US$5.5 million) in the first six months of this year, or NT$1.29 earnings per share, on a revenue of NT$3.8 billion.
Last year, net profit was NT$169 million, or NT$1.28 earnings per share, on a revenue of NT$6.6 billion. Gross margin was 8.4 percent in the first six months, compared with 6.09 percent last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”