Ministry reports export ruling
The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Friday said the US Department of Commerce had ruled that Taiwanese steel nail exporters comply with US antisubsidy rules.
However, Taiwanese steel nail exporters have been selling their products at unfairly low prices in the US market and are subject to antidumping tariffs of up to 2.24 percent, the ministry said, citing the department’s decision announced on Wednesday.
The US International Trade Commission is to issue its own final ruling on June 27 on whether foreign steel nail exporters have hurt the US market, the ministry said in a statement.
According to US statistics, Taiwan exported US$80.83 million worth of steel nails to the US in 2011, US$113.73 million in 2012, US$99.45 million in 2013, and US$102.96 million last year.
Eclat buys Automa-Tech shares
Eclat Forever Machinery Co (敘豐), which manufactures and sells processing equipment in Taiwan, yesterday said it had acquired 547,200 Automa-Tech Taiwan Co (台灣歐特瑪) shares at NT$18.5 each.
The deal, worth NT$10.12 million (US$330,600), will make Automa-Tech Taiwan a wholly owned unit of Eclat Forever, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
It will also help the company expand its business scale and enhance its technological competitiveness, Eclat Forever said.
Formed in 1997, Automa-Tech Taiwan is a joint venture between Eclat Forever and France-based Automa-Tech to supply automated production equipment for clients in the printed circuit board (PCB) and LCD industries in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to the latest deal, Eclat Forever held an 84 percent stake in the joint venture.
FocalTech remains in the red
FocalTech Systems Co (敦泰電子), which makes driver ICs for touchpanels, on Friday said it remained in the red in the first quarter, affected by slowing smartphone demand in China and fewer working days than the previous quarter.
In the January-to-March quarter, the company reported a net loss of NT$55.56 billion, or losses per share of NT$0.13, after sales declined 15.2 percent from the previous quarter to NT$2.43 billion.
However, nonoperating gains helped the company to cut losses by 63.7 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$150 million net loss, the company said.
Gross margin increased by 2.9 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 15.5 percent last year due to improvement in product mix and better inventory control management, it said.
Cement firms report results
The nation’s two leading cement producers last week reported mixed results for the first quarter, but analysts said both would face further weakening demand in China this quarter before momentum picks up in the second half of the year.
Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) posted net income of NT$808 million last quarter, down 55.9 percent from a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$0.22. Sales dropped 20 percent to NT$21.44 billion mainly due to lackluster demand, weak property market sentiment and lower cement prices in China.
Rival Asia Cement Corp (亞洲水泥) saw net income rise 2 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.47 billion last quarter, or NT$0.47 per share. The company’s sales dropped 5.54 percent to NT$15.36 billion last quarter.
Bioteque results released
Medical supplies maker Bioteque Corp (邦特生技) last week reported its financial results for the first quarter — which met market expectations — and said sales this year would climb further with a new Philippine plant ramping up production.
Net income increased 15 percent from a year earlier to NT$72 million in the first quarter, or NT$0.84 per share, with revenue of NT$303 million, up 18 percent year-on-year, Bioteque said.
Gross margin and operating margin improved to 44.4 percent and 29.2 percent respectively last quarter because of a better product mix marked by more catheters than hemodialysis products, the company said.
Bioteque said it will continue developing value-added products, seek strategic alliances with major international companies, and looking for merger and acquisition opportunities to expand its business scale.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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