Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) yesterday said it plans to eliminate more than 300 contract jobs soon to reduce costs and would not rule out cutting full-time positions, as the solar cell maker struggles to ride out a severe slump in the industry.
The workforce reduction started when Motech shut down a solar wafer production line in June — affecting 160 employees — to stem losses, as market demand weakened when solar installations in China began to slow in June.
“To quickly respond to market changes, the company will adjust personnel based on customer orders and required production capacity. The company’s goal is to streamline operations,” Tainan-based Motech said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Motech plans to scale down operations to improve competitiveness and financial performance in a depressed market, the company said.
“Foreign contract employees will be affected by the workforce adjustment, as they mostly supplement existing personnel,” it said.
Shares in Motech plunged 1.87 percent to NT$9.45 in Taipei trading yesterday after the company disclosed the job cuts.
The company reported that cumulative losses in the first half of the year widened to NT$3.14 billion (US$101.93 million), or NT$5.84 per share, compared with losses of NT$1.7 billion in the same period last year.
Motech has been in the red since 2014.
TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday forecast Taiwan’s solar installation market would expand at an annual compound growth rate of 303 percent to 4 gigawatts by 2025, with an estimated 850 to 920 megawatts installed this year.
Strong growth is expected on the back of the government’s green energy policy, which encourages the installation of solar panels on the roofs of farm buildings and in fallow fields.
Neo Solar Power Energy Corp (新日光能源) became the nation’s biggest solar module supplier by module capacity in the first half of the year, outranking AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), TrendForce added.
Newly established Taiwan Solar Energy Corp (元晶太陽能) and Taiwan Solar Module Manufacturing Co (TSMMC, 台灣太陽能模組製造) are expected to rank second and third respectively in the second half of the year thanks to increased production, while AUO should fall to fourth place, TrendForce said.
TSMMC, a joint venture between Motech and Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾), was formed in April.
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 New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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
RSS