The nation’s major listed auto parts suppliers reported increases in their first-quarter sales as customer demand remained strong during the period.
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), which supplies precision auto transmission components, posted cumulative revenue of NT$1.77 billion (US$60.6 million) for last quarter, up 4.02 percent from NT$1.7 billion in the same period last year.
“Hota’s sales result for the first quarter broke a record and that was mostly in line with our expectations,” Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a report released yesterday.
Hota, whose brand clients include electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc, is expected to continue to benefit from increasing orders and ongoing capacity expansion at its plant in the Chiayi Dapumei Precision Machinery Park (嘉義大埔美精密機械園區) this quarter, the report said.
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), which makes automotive metal sheets and bumpers, last quarter saw its sales increase 4.11 percent year-on-year to NT$6.25 billion from NT$6 billion, supported mainly by its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business.
In the January-to-March quarter, revenue from Tong Yang’s OEM business rose 18 percent annually to about NT$2.41 billion, company data showed.
Laster Tech Corp Ltd (麗清科技), the largest LED automotive lighting components supplier in China, said revenue last quarter climbed to a record high of NT$1.06 billion, a 4.02 percent annual increase from NT$1.02 billion, on the back of increased LED lighting penetration in the Chinese market.
Laster Tech said it is optimistic about its business outlook and is pouring resources into the research and development of new lighting products, including adaptive driving beams and adaptive front-lighting systems.
In related news, five major business-to-business exhibitions for Taiwanese auto components makers, including Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show and Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show, opened yesterday at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 1 and Nangang Exhibition Hall.
The events, which are to run through Saturday, are expected to draw 38,000 visitors and 7,500 foreign buyers, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會) 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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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