Automotive lighting products maker TYC Brother Industrial Co (堤維西) yesterday said it expects its Chinese subsidiary’s revenue to grow by more than 5 percent this year, buoyed by robust demand in China’s car market.
“We expect revenue [from China] to grow, thanks to new model launches by Changan Ford Automobile Co Ltd (長安福特),” TYC Brother chief financial officer Alex Weng (翁一峰) told reporters after an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Tainan-based TYC Brother sells its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) car lights in China via Varroc TYC Auto Lamps Co (大茂偉瑞柯), which is a joint venture between the Taiwanese company and Varroc group from India.
Based in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, Varroc TYC also makes car lights for FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd (一汽大眾) and the Chinese unit of General Motors Co.
TYC Brother is also expanding into Southeast Asia, hoping to grab a bigger share of the region’s auto parts market, the company said.
TYC Brother subsidiary Juoku Technology Co (儒億科技), which provides car lamp parts OEM, has a new plant in Thailand, with plans to branch out into Indonesia and Malaysia, Weng said, without giving a timeframe.
As for the auto components aftermarket, the company also gave a positive outlook, saying global demand has been steady since the beginning of the year.
Company data showed that auto parts were the largest revenue contributor last year, accounting for nearly 90 percent of total sales.
The company commands nearly 50 percent of the US’ auto parts aftermarket, company data showed.
Despite a positive sales outlook, Weng voiced concern over currency fluctuations, saying the sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback could erode the company’s profitability this year, he said.
In the first two months of the year, TYC Brother’s sales edged up 0.11 percent year-on-year to NT$2.56 billion (US$83.7 million).
Revenue last year reached NT$15.96 billion, up 6.08 percent from the previous year. Net profit soared 30.04 percent to NT$987 million on an annual basis, with gross margin up from 21.94 percent to 23.05 percent.
Earnings per share reached a 13-year high of NT$3.17, compared with NT$2.43 a year earlier, company data showed.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last