Airtac International Group (亞德客國際集團), a China-based pneumatic components supplier, reported NT$6.15 billion (US$195.8 million) in revenue in the first seven months, up 20 percent from the previous year, on rising demand from China.
The pneumatic components maker also saw its net profit soar 30 percent from a year earlier to NT$1.05 billion for the first half of the year.
The results translated into NT$5.83 in earnings per share, the second-highest level after earnings in the first half of 2014, company data showed.
The strong performance could be attributed to recovering demand in the Chinese market, the company told an investors’ conference on Friday last week.
The fast increase in orders from electronic, automobile and battery industries helped boost sales, the company said.
Airtac’s products are applied in various automated machines, including electronic equipment, automotive assembly lines and robot arms.
“Thanks to a diversified product mix, our company is not susceptible to fluctuations in any single industry,” the company said, adding that the strategy accounted for strong sales in the first half of the year.
However, the pneumatic components maker derives most of its revenue from the Chinese market, which accounts for 90 percent of Airtac’s total revenues, the company said.
Revenues from Taiwan contributes only 4 percent, the company said.
Airtac has become the second-largest pneumatic component maker in China with a 16 percent share, while Japan’s SMC Corp commands a 32 percent market share, company data showed.
Airtac said it plans to invest in building new plants to expand capacity.
Airtac said that it would purchase about 100 hectares in Ningbo, China, as a new production base in response to soaring demand for pneumatic components in the nation.
The company has set aside NT$1.5 billion in capital expenditures this year and would invest more in capacity expansion in China next year.
The China-based pneumatic components maker is also planning to set up branches in places other than Taiwan and China.
Airtac has sales divisions in Italy, Singapore, Japan and Thailand and Malaysia. It plans divisions in the US, Germany and Spain.
Last year, the pneumatic components maker’s net profits decreased from NT$1.79 billion in 2014 to NT$1.38 billion, or NT$7.64 earnings per share.
The company attributed the decline to weak demand in the global market.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by