Canadian Tire Corp is opening a Shanghai office this fall as it increases the number of made-in-China products it sells in Canada, the country's biggest hardware retailer said.
"There has been some growth in the China supply to Canadian Tire and this would certainly reflect that," Canadian Tire spokesman Scott Bonikowsky told reporters in an interview Friday.
Bonikowsky would not say what percentage of goods sold at Canadian Tire comes from China, nor how much that percentage has increased over the past few years or might increase once the store has staff in China.
"What I will say is that the overwhelming majority is domestically sourced, but we do have an important part of program that would be from China as well and all of the Pacific Rim for that matter," he said.
Canadian Tire has had an office in Hong Kong for 25 years, and will keep that operation even after opening the office in Shanghai, Bonikowsky said.
The company also has an office in Seoul and one in Taipei.
Michael McLarney, editor and publisher of the hardware industry newsletter Hardlines, said that by opening an office in Shanghai, Canadian Tire is following the lead of many other hardware retailers.
McLarney said while Canadian Tire's Chinese-made products will be less expensive to manufacture than products made at home, their quality won't likely suffer.
"What they're doing is they're going over and having products made to spec," McLarney said. "They'll get right into the Chinese factories."
Canadian Tire's Bonikowsky wouldn't say what products the 452-store retailer currently imports from China or which new ones might be available in the future. But McLarney guessed much of the store's Chinese products involve its private-label goods, such as its Mastercraft tools.
Canadian Tire also owns clothing retailer Mark's Work Warehouse, which could benefit from the inexpensive textile market in China.
For shoppers, Canadian Tire's foray into China should mean the company will stay competitive with other retailers with operations in that country, including US-based Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, which reportedly bought US$12 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2002, and Home Depot.
The decision to open an office in China comes as Home Depot, the US big-box home-improvement retailer, examines opportunities to open stores in China.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
RSS