Auto components manufacturer Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業) yesterday said that pre-tax profit last month surged 55 percent annually to a record NT$347 million (US$11.42 million) on robust demand.
Aggregate pre-tax income in the first half of the year totaled NT$1.48 billion, or earnings per share of NT$2.36, remaining flat from the same period last year, the firm said in a statement.
From January through last month, cumulative revenue increased 1.37 percent to NT$11.97 billion from a year earlier, data showed.
Tainan-based Tong Yang — which mainly supplies automotive metal sheets and bumpers to global brands — attributed its strong performance to sustained demand in the global automotive market, as well as foreign-exchange gains of NT$43.86 million over the period.
Tong Yang said it is conducting more research into its waterborne coating technologies to replace some of its oil-based coating production lines by the end of this year.
The improvement in manufacturing would help the company secure more orders from European customers, as waterborne coated products meet the higher environmental standards required there, the firm said.
The company is to start delivering waterborne coated auto components to clients in Europe and Japan this quarter, it said.
Tong Yang’s customers include General Motors Co, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Changan Automobile (長安汽車).
A new facility on a 15,000 ping (4.95 hectare) plot of land is expected to begin operations this quarter, Tong Yang said.
Tong Yang shares rose 1.89 percent to NT$59.4 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which edged up 0.38 percent to 10,460.15 points.
Meanwhile, Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), on Monday reported record-high revenue of NT$3.35 billion in the first half, a 16.28 percent rise from a year earlier.
Last month alone, the company saw its sales jump 8.45 percent to NT$505 million from a year earlier, a company filing showed.
The company was yet to release its audited earnings for the second quarter.
Hota, which makes gears and shafts for vehicles, is building automated production lines at the Chiayi Dapumei Precision Machinery Park to meet increasing demand from international clients.
Four new automated “intelligent” production lines in Chiayi County have begun production since the beginning of this month, Hota said.
Another three automated production lines are expected to start operations in October, it said.
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