Auto parts maker Iron Force Industrial Co (劍麟) on Thursday reported a record-high profit of NT$688 million (US$22.5 million) for last year, up 10.9 percent from NT$620 million in 2015, with earnings per share of NT$9.09.
The company attributed the growth to contributions from its high-margin products, despite a foreign-exchange loss of NT$40 million, Iron Force said in a statement.
The company’s board approved a proposal to distribute cash dividends of NT$4.75 per share, with a payout ratio of 52 percent.
The dividend proposal still needs approval from shareholders at an annual general meeting scheduled for June 13, the company said.
Iron Force’s major products include airbag inflators, car components for electric steering systems and seat belt pretensioners.
Daiwa Capital Markets said in a report that the company had a 12 to 15 percent share of the global market for airbag inflator parts and a 15 to 20 percent share of the seat belt pretensional tubes market last year.
Iron Force posted consolidated revenue of NT$4.46 billion last year, up 13.1 percent year-on-year. It expects revenue growth to be sustainable this year, given the increasing penetration of its auto-safety components.
In related news, auto parts manufacturer Engley Industrial Co (開曼英利) yesterday said its cash dividend per share for this year might be flat from last year’s NT$4, as the company has set a higher capital expenditure for expansion and acquisition purposes.
The company, which produces long glass-fiber reinforcement plastic parts and metal stamping components for major Chinese vehicle brands, said it would allocate a budget of between 600 million yuan and 800 million yuan (US$86.9 million and US$115.8 million) this year.
The new plant in Qingdao, Shandong Province, is to start trial production this year and is to supply car components for FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd (一汽大眾) after it commences mass production next year, the company said.
However, Engley gave a conservative outlook, citing rising steel prices and foreign-exchange fluctuations.
The firm has not yet released its annual earnings for last year, but its earnings per share improved from NT$6.89 to NT$9.05 annually in the first three quarters, data showed.
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