Taisun Int’l (Holding) Corp (泰昇), which makes diapers, sanitary pads and adult incontinence products, said its new plant in Cambodia is to start trial production in the fourth quarter of this year, as part of the firm’s efforts to maintain its competitiveness in the nation.
Taisun — the largest diaper supplier in Cambodia and the fourth-largest in Vietnam — sells most of its products under four self-owned brands in Southeast Asia and Africa, including UniDry and SunMate.
The facility, which cost the company US$11.7 million, is scheduled to begin mass production in the first quarter of next year, Taisun president and chairman Tai Chao-rong (戴朝榮) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei on Monday.
The Cambodian plant is expected to generate revenue of US$30 million per year by producing baby training pants and sanitary pads, the firm said.
The company is also to add several production lines at its Vietnamese plant this year, raising the annual capacity of adult diapers from 90 million items to 135 million, Taisun said.
Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the company posted sales of NT$490.2 million (US$16.25 million) in the first four months of the year, a 0.31 percent decline from the same period the previous year, data showed.
In the first quarter, Taisun saw its net profit decrease 4.9 percent from NT$71.1 million the previous year to NT$67.6 million, or earnings per share of NT$1.94.
Gross margin over the period also slid from 32.33 percent to 32.95 percent, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company attributed the sluggish earnings performance to weaker-than-expected demand in Africa amid rising competition.
“Some of our global competitors have expanded their footprints in Africa, as the continent has a relatively low penetration rate for diapers,” Tai told investors.
In Africa alone, sales plunged 75.1 percent to NT$17.5 million in the first three months of the year, the company said.
Company data showed that revenue from African nations contributed 4.69 percent of the company’s total revenue last quarter, while sales in Cambodia and Vietnam accounted for 26.52 percent and 52.74 percent respectively.
Taisun shares fell 1.9 percent to close at NT$132.5 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which edged up 0.11 percent to 10,007.84 points.
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.
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
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS