Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), the nation’s biggest solar cell maker, yesterday reported a better-than-expected annual loss of NT$952 million (US$30.07 million) for last year, as the volatile solar market hurts gross margins.
Capital Investment Management (群益投顧) forecast that Motech would lose NT$975 million last year. In 2013, Motech eked out a profit of NT$252 million.
Capital Investment suggests in a report that Motech could narrow its losses this year to NT$698 million, in expectation that a lower US antidumping tariff of 11.45 percent will help Motech return to the US market.
Its rivals face duties from 19.5 to 27.55 percent on US imports.
“Although [Motech’s] product price may not return to the level during the previous US antisubsidy and antidumping investigations, it may be still a bit higher than the spot price with a stable market,” Capital Investment said.
The consultant gave a “buy” rating on Motech, with a 12-month target price set at NT$43.
Last year, its gross profit fell 89.58 percent to NT$170 million, compared with NT$1.63 billion the previous year, filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
Revenue shrank 6.42 percent to NT$19.98 billion last year from NT$21.35 billion in the previous year, the statements showed.
Solar cell maker Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽科技) yesterday reported NT$826 million in revenue last month, up 0.36 percent from NT$823 million in December last year. The figure showed an annual decline of 3.61 percent from NT$857 million.
Motech shares rose 0.82 percent to NT$42.95 yesterday. Solartech shares fell 0.53 percent to NT$18.8.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained