Patec Precision Industry Co Ltd (百達), which makes automobile and motorcycle components, yesterday gave an optimistic outlook for the company’s business next year, as it is due to benefit from continued expansion in China by its major client Volkswagen Group.
Volkswagen — which sells its cars in China through joint ventures such as FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd (一汽大眾) — contributes nearly 50 percent of Patec’s total sales, company data showed.
Volkswagen is expected to launch 10 new sports utility vehicles in China over the next three years, Patec chief financial officer Sean Hsu (許書祥) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
NEW PLATFORM
Patec, which is headquartered in Singapore, plans to deepen its collaboration with Volkswagen and secure more orders from the German automaker as the firm has joined its MQB modular platform, he said.
Through the MQB platform, Volkswagen aims to decrease production costs and to ensure the quality of standardized components made by its global suppliers, he added.
Next year, FAW-Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen are to introduce about 20 new models for Chinese customers and those cars would be supported by the MQB platform, Patec said in a statement.
Nearly 80 percent of Volkswagen’s new models would be produced using the MQB platform, up from this year’s 40 percent, the statement said.
“Patec should benefit from the MQB platform. Besides, we only have a few competitors [in Volkswagen’s global supply chain],” Hsu said.
To meet rising demand, Patec is allocating a budget of approximately NT$100 million (US$3.33 million) for research and development.
The company is planning to launch one-way pulleys in cars featuring cold forging technology to help save processing costs, it said, but did not give a timetable.
Meanwhile, the company also plans to tap the medical equipment market to diversify its product portfolio and to enhance its margin.
To differentiate itself from its competitors, Patec said it is to make medical equipment using cold forming solutions instead of outdated hot forging technologies, which reduces the waste generated during the acid pickling process.
Asked about its key products, the company expects sterilization containers equipped with unique device identifiers to start making a contribution to its revenue next year, it said, without elaborating.
The firm posted aggregate net income of NT$96.31 million in the first three quarters of the year, a 23.16 percent increase from NT$78.20 million the previous year, mainly due to stable growth in its core businesses.
Sales in the first nine months of this year were NT$1.53 billion, up 7.75 percent year-on-year from NT$1.42 billion the previous year, with gross margin rising to 29.43 percent from 28.61 percent, Patec’s 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