Auto parts maker Iron Force Industrial Co Ltd (劍麟) yesterday voiced optimism about the business outlook for the current quarter, buoyed by increasing global demand for seatbelt pretensioners.
Headquartered in New Taipei City, Iron Force manufactures car safety products, such as airbag inflators and seat belts, as well as clothes hangers and display fixtures.
“We saw sales in the [seatbelt pretensioner] sector grow nearly 30 percent annually last year, which contributed substantially to the company’s overall revenue,” spokesman Terry Lin (林鼎鈞) said by telephone.
A seatbelt pretensioner acts to hold a passenger during a collision, reducing serious injury and saving lives.
Lin said that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of safety when buying vehicles, prompting global automakers to install more safety systems, which should benefit Iron Force’s sales.
The company expects annual global seatbelt pretensioner sales to reach US$6.72 billion by 2021.
It also expects sales from airbag inflator related components and car components for steering systems to increase in the near term.
Iron Force reported sales of NT$4.46 billion (US$141.2 million) for last year, up 12.8 percent from a year earlier.
Sales last month increased 9.7 percent to NT$392 million, company data showed.
The double-digit growth in whole-year sales can be attributed to the optimistic sentiment in major car markets and higher penetration of car safety components, the company said in a statement released last week.
New car sales in the US reached a record-high 17.55 million units last year, compared with 2015’s 17.47 million units. The figure represents the seventh consecutive year of annual sales growth.
A 50 percent cut in the purchase tax for small-engine cars also boosted Chinese automobile sales last year, which increased 13.7 percent annually to 28.03 million units, according to the data compiled by the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Iron Force mainly supplies the top three global automotive safety system firms: TRW, Autoliv and Takata, which account for more than 80 percent of the automotive safety system market.
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