Oil maker Fwusow Industry Co Ltd (福壽實業) yesterday reported that net income dipped 46.66 percent year-on-year to NT$44.32 million (US$1.42 million) in the first half of the year, with earnings per share falling from NT$0.26 to NT$0.14, due to low chicken prices and non-operating losses.
Gross margin edged down 0.4 percentage points to 8.26 percent, but revenue rose 2.22 percent to NT$5.98 billion in the same period.
Fwusow attributed the weakening earnings to the company’s meat processing segment, which reported net losses of NT$49.85 million in the first six months, widening from NT$12.7 million a year earlier, as sales dropped 7.2 percent year-on-year due to falling chicken prices.
“We expect formula feeds and pet food to help drive earnings growth in the second half of the year, as their margins remain high,” Fwusow chief financial officer Tai Chen-hui (戴禎慧) told an investors’ meeting in Taipei.
The company is investing NT$70 million in a prepared frozen food plant in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲), which is expected to begin operations in December, to help improve its food processing business, Fwusow chairman and president Hung Yau-kuen (洪堯昆) said.
The new plant would supply local food chains such as Wowprime Corp’s (王品) 12 Sabu (石二鍋) hot-pot restaurants, Hung said.
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
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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