Lemtech Holdings Co, Ltd (聯德控股) is to build a new plant in the Czech Republic, a company official told an investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
The New Taipei City-based metal stamping components and precision press tool supplier operates plants in Kunshan, China, Thailand and the US, producing the metal parts used in many industries including computer, telecommunication, consumer electronics and automotive components.
“Although the [Czech] factory might not benefit Lemtech’s sales significantly in the beginning, we see it as a milestone for our entry into Europe’s automobile and electronic parts business,” Lemtech spokesman Zac Lu (盧晉佑) said.
The company expects the Czech plant to break even in 2018, he said.
The firm is to start construction on the plant in the fourth quarter of this year, with mass production scheduled to begin in the second half of next year, Lu said.
The company is conservative on its performance for the rest of the year, he said, adding that metal slides, its major profit driver, might not expand its capacity in the current quarter, as the Kunshan plant is adjusting its product mix.
The Kunshan facility is expected to increase its capacity in the fourth quarter, Lu said, adding that future orders of metal slides might stimulate sales next year.
In the first half of this year, Lemtech posted a net loss of NT$6.4 million (US$201,151), or a net loss per share of NT$0.16, compared with a net income of NT$61 million for the same period last year.
The disappointing results came even though aggregate sales in the first half of the year increased 7 percent to NT$1.46 billion on a yearly basis, company data showed.
Gross margin was 23.55 percent in the first half of the year, slowing from 25.58 percent for the same period last year, the company said.
The net loss in the first six months of the year could be attributed to the capital gains tax of NT$134 million, Lu told investors.
The revenue from its electronic components sector made up more than 50 percent of total revenue, while sales in the automobile parts sector accounted for nearly 40 percent, company data showed.
Lemtech, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is a components supplier for global brands and its customers include Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), HTC Corp (宏達電) and Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
Lemtech shares yesterday gained NT$0.1 to close at NT$75.7 in Taipei trading, outpacing the TAIEX’s 0.24 percent drop, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS