AUTOPARTS
Tong Yang sales rise 15%
Automobile parts maker Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$2.14 billion (US$63.3 million) last month, up 15 percent year-on-year and marking the highest performance in January in its history. The maker of parts such as bumpers and hoods said in a statement that mild growth in North American market and launches of new products, as well as rising demand in Taiwan and China ahead of Lunar New Year holiday, boosted its sales in both the aftermarket (AM) business and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) segments last month. AM sales amounted to NT$1.41 billion last month, up 16 percent from a year earlier, while OEM sales rose 12 percent annually to NT$732 million.
SHIPPING
Wisdom profit down 58.72%
Wisdom Marine Group (慧洋海運集團), one of the nation’s listed bulk shippers, yesterday reported pretax profit of NT$117 million last month, down 58.72 percent from a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$0.23. Wisdom attributed the decrease to less contribution of non-operating income from ship sales. However, the shipper’s consolidated sales rose 4.06 percent year-on-year to NT$954 million last month, it said in a statement. Wisdom plans to sell two new bulk vessels this month and a total of 10 ships this year.
SEMICONDUCTORS
WT forecasts 6% sales fall
IC distributor WT Microelectronics Co (文曄科技) on Tuesday said it is expecting sales of between NT$25.9 billion and NT$27.5 billion this quarter, from last quarter’s NT$27.58 billion. The firm’s guidance for this quarter forecast sales to fall by up to 6 percent sequentially, which it attributed to the impact of fewer working days this month. Gross margin is also likely to reach between 5.6 percent and 5.8 percent this quarter, compared with 5.66 percent last quarter, while operating margin may range from 2 percent to 2.2 percent, flat from last quarter’s 2.07 percent, the firm said in a statement. WT reported a flat net income of NT$508 million for last quarter, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.13. For the whole of last year, net profit rose 7.95 percent year-on-year to NT$1.98 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Synnex revenue up 16%
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強), Asia’s largest distributor of information technology products and electronics components, yesterday said its consolidated revenue for last month rose 16 percent to NT$28.7 billion from NT$24.7 billion a year earlier. The company said in a statement that it saw sales in the information technology business rise 14 percent annually to NT$15.7 billion last month, accounting for 55 percent of total revenue. Synnex said semiconductor components sales also expanded by 28 percent year-on-year to NT$7.5 billion last month, contributing 26 percent to the firm’s total revenue. Meanwhile, sales in the communications products rose 5 percent to NT$1.9 billion and consumer electronics sales expanded by 10 percent to NT$3.6 billion, the firm added.
STEELMAKERS
Chien Shing stops trading
Chien Shing Stainless Steel Co (千興) yesterday said its board decided to suspend trading of its shares on the local bourse as it plans to file for restructuring. The company is suffering a cash shortfall and owes NT$1.35 billion in debt repayments in the short term. Chien Shing, which already suspended operations in Tainan’s Madou District (麻豆), will continue operations for up to six months, it said.
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