Automotive safety parts maker Iron Force Industrial Co (劍麟) on Friday reported a net profit of NT$502 million (US$16.25 million) for last year, down 8.7 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share falling from NT$7.26 to NT$6.63.
The company attributed the decline to the weakness in new vehicles sales globally and airbag defects at Japan’s Takata Corp, which is one of Iron Force’s major customers.
However, the board of directors still aims to maintain a high payout ratio policy to reward its shareholders and has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5 per common share, with a payout ratio of 75.4 percent, the company said.
Automotive safety parts account for about 75 percent of Iron Force’s product portfolio in terms of revenue, with major items including airbag inflators, precision metal components for automotive safety systems, high-precision metal tubes for seatbelt retractors and vehicle components for steering systems.
The company also produces store display fixtures and clothes hangers, which make up the remaining 25 percent of its revenue, company data showed.
Iron Force’s consolidated revenue for last year declined 2.4 percent annually to NT$4.22 billion. During the first two months of this year, revenue rose 11.38 percent annually to NT$712.33 million, company data showed.
The company said it remains positive about revenue growth this year given the increase in demand for vehicle safety devices worldwide, and because its shipments of new pedestrian protection devices and shock absorbers are expected to increase from last year.
The global market size of airbag and seatbelt products reached US$53.98 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow at an annual composite growth rate of 13.5 percent through 2026 to US$168.23 billion, Iron Force said, citing the Irish research firm Research And Markets Ltd.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by