AUTO PARTS
Hota net income slumps
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), which makes automotive transmission systems, yesterday posted its lowest profit since the fourth quarter of 2014, as a sluggish global auto market amid a US-China trade dispute took a toll on the company’s sales. Net income was NT$181 million (US$5.95 million) last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.71, down 4.65 percent quarter-on-quarter and 46.78 percent year-on-year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Third-quarter revenue was NT$1.53 billion, up 1.68 percent from the previous quarter, but down 18.55 percent from the same period last year, the company said.
APPAREL
Eclat bullish on growth
Garment and fabric supplier Eclat Textile Co (儒鴻) yesterday said that growth momentum would persist this quarter during the high season after it posted its best results of the year last quarter. The company posted net income of NT$1.19 billion for the third quarter, or earnings per share of NT$4.35, up 11.3 percent from the previous quarter and 14.9 percent from a year earlier, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Net income for the first three quarters was NT$3.16 billion, up 0.8 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$11.54, the company said. The company expects to add between three and five new clients next year, so sales growth should accelerate, it said.
APPAREL
TOPBI posts record sales
TOPBI International Holdings Ltd (淘帝國際控股), a leading children’s clothing brand, yesterday posted record sales for last month, thanks to a growing number of physical stores and an increased contribution from e-commerce platforms. The company said the robust sales momentum would continue this quarter due to the holiday sales season and the effect of bigger economies of scale. Consolidated sales were NT$786.28 million last month, up 2.93 percent from NT$763.86 million in the same period last year. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 6.04 percent to NT$5.65 billion, from NT$5.32 billion in the same period last year, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
ELECTRONICS
Lite-On revenue declines
Electronic components supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday posted revenue of NT$14.65 billion for last month, a 17 percent year-on-year decline, due to fewer working days. Cumulative revenue from January to last month was NT$148.44 billion, down 14.8 percent year-on-year, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. The information technology business contributed 70 percent of overall sales last month, while the optoelectronics business contributed 17 percent. The storage business accounted for 7 percent of sales last month.
STEELMAKERS
CSC revenue slips 4.3%
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday posted revenue of NT$27.68 billion for last month, the second-lowest amount this year. Last month’s revenue was down 4.3 percent from the previous month and 24 percent from a year earlier, the company said. In the first 10 months of the year, cumulative revenue was NT$309.48 billion, a decrease of 7 percent year-on-year, it said. CSC plans next week to announce its steel prices for domestic deliveries in the first quarter of next year, a move that would be closely watched by its clients, as prices are a key gauge of the outlook for the industry.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained