Medical device maker Microlife Corp (百略) yesterday said revenue would rise by 4 to 5 percent this year from last year on expectations of higher sales of its new sphygmomanometers.
The company aims to increase shipments of its new sphygmomanometers, launched in the middle of last year, by 30 percent this year from 250,000 units last year, vice president Edith Huang (黃雅絹) said.
The new product is priced at NT$4,500 (US$149) per unit, compared with NT$2,000 per unit for previous models, Huang said, adding that its gross margin is estimated to be 10 percent higher than earlier versions.
The new machine can measure blood pressure three times and calculate the average, Huang said. It can also test whether a patient has atrial fibrillation, which may lead to myocardial infarction and stroke, he said.
Microlife made the remarks after a ceremony where the company donated 1,000 new sphygmomanometers to 30 local hospitals yesterday.
The company also produces medical thermometers and electric blankets.
The company has set up 24 service points at local drug stores and medical device shops, where people can use its new sphygmomanometers for free. It plans to raise the number of service points to 100 around the nation by the end of this year, Huang said.
“Many Taiwanese still do not recognize the danger of atrial fibrillation, and we believe our new product can help prevent stroke and myocardial infarction,” Huang said.
Microlife sold about 5 million sphygmomanometers a year, accounting for 60 percent of its total revenue, he said.
Last year, the company reported revenue of NT$6.28 billion, up 9.6 percent from NT$5.73 billion a year ago, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The US and Europe each accounted for 40 percent of its revenue last year, while Asia contributed 20 percent, Huang said.
Last quarter, Microlife saw revenue increase 4.53 percent to NT$967.15 million from NT$925.22 million the previous year.
Huang said the company’s revenue is expected to rise sequentially this quarter and next quarter, but would decline slightly in the fourth quarter.
The company posted a stronger performance in the second half of last year because it started to sell electric blankets in the third quarter, Huang said.
Microlife shares rose 1 percent to NT$80.70 yesterday, outperforming the over-the-counter index, which advanced 0.37 percent.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government