While the recent rise in global nickel prices has helped Taiwanese stainless steel firms boost their prices — and revenue — they are concerned that large fluctuations in nickel prices could affect orders.
Global nickel prices have soared 56.72 percent since June, from US$11,500 per tonne to US$18,023 on Tuesday, data from London Metal Exchange showed, after top nickel producer Indonesia last week said that it was considering curbing exports early next year.
Nickel accounts for more than half of the cost of stainless steel products.
While a steady rise in nickel prices has boosted stainless steel prices, clients have become more conservative about placing orders, a Froch Enterprise Co (彰源企業) public relations executive said by telephone on Tuesday.
“The rapid increase in nickel prices is abnormal and not good for steel companies,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
“We still expect nickel prices to increase gradually in the second half of this year, which would reflect in our sales in the fourth quarter as there is a two-month time difference between placing orders and shipping goods,” the executive said.
The company has invested NT$250 million (US$7.97 million) in expanding the capacity of its plant in Yunlin County’s Douliou City and spent NT$75 million in increasing the output of a plant in Wuxi, China, aiming to boost overall monthly capacity from 16,000 tonnes this year to 18,500 tonnes next year, he said.
YIEH UNITED
Major stainless steel supplier Yieh United Steel Corp (燁聯鋼鐵) first raised its product prices by NT$1,000 per tonne in July, then by NT$4,500 per tonne last month and said prices would rise by NT$3,000 per tonne again this month as a result of the increase in nickel prices.
To secure a steady supply of nickel and lower manufacturing costs, the company plans to build a new plant in Indonesia in the middle of next year, a Yieh United official said by telephone.
The official would not give a timeline for the plant’s construction, saying only that the company aimed for an initial annual capacity of 1 million tonnes of stainless steel.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six