Textile maker Far Eastern New Century Corp (FENC, 遠東新世紀) yesterday said it expects Vietnam to become its third-largest production base after a capacity expansion project is completed in 2020.
“Revenue generated at the Vietnamese plant is likely to take up 30 percent of the firm’s total sales over the next three years, up from less than 5 percent at present,” a company official who declined to be named said by telephone.
The forecast is in line with the company’s business strategy to reduce reliance on its two major production bases, Taiwan and China, the official said.
Taipei-headquartered FENC reported NT$132.4 billion (US$4.36 billion) in revenue last year, down 0.4 percent from 2015.
Revenue from Taiwanese plants takes up nearly 60 percent of the firm’s total sales, while the Chinese plants contributes 40 percent, company data showed.
Aided by expanded capacity in Vietnam, revenue generated in Taiwan is expected to account for 40 percent of total sales in 2020, with sales from China taking up 30 percent, FENC said.
The capacity expansion is aimed at creating a complete supply chain for fabrics and garments in Southeast Asia, and is projected to cost more than US$700 million, it said.
The company, which manufactures a wide range of petrochemical and textile products, has an annual production capacity of nearly 2 million dozen garments in Vietnam, company’s data showed.
As part of the expansion plan, a new plant that makes knitted fabrics began operations this quarter, while several new factories making polyester garments are set to start production by the end of next year, it said.
The 66-year-old company also expects that the launch of several high-end products could drive sales growth in the near term.
FENC is considering expanding production capacity of several nylon products used to manufacture car airbags and seatbelts as it eyes the growing automotive safety components market, the company official said.
It is also planning to raise the capacity of polyester staple fiber for diapers and sanitary products at its Taiwanese and Chinese plants.
Shareholders on Wednesday approved the firm’s proposal to pay cash dividends of NT$0.8, based on last year’s earnings of NT$6.3 billion, or earnings of NT$1.26 per share.
The company is a subsidiary of Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), which also operates department stores and mobile services businesses in Taiwan, including Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信).
FENC’s assets total nearly NT$520 billion, including reinvestments in other affiliated units within the group.
The polyester and textiles businesses accounted for 28 percent of the firm’s total assets last year, while reinvestments and its real-estate sector contributed 42 percent and 30 percent respectively, data showed.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS