Bicycle maker Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械) yesterday said that first-quarter net profit plunged 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$516 million (US$17.08 million), dragged down by declining sales and volatile foreign-exchange rates.
That translates into earnings per share of NT$1.38, compared with NT$2.27 per share over the same period last year.
Revenue shrank 5.9 percent annually from NT$14.35 billion to NT$13.51 billion, a company statement said.
Sales volume declined 7.9 percent from 1.26 million bicycles to 1.16 million units on an annual basis, company data showed.
Giant, which has more than 12,000 dealers in 80 countries, attributed the sluggish performance to slowing demand in the Chinese market and a strong New Taiwan dollar.
China contributes nearly 18 percent to the company’s overall sales, while Europe and the US account for 31 percent and 21 percent respectively, company data showed.
The bicycle manufacturer foresees a challenging year amid an uncertain sales outlook for the Chinese market, despite the bike-sharing boom there.
Giant mainly provides high-end products, such as road bikes and touring bikes, but Chinese bike-sharing platform operators tend to purchase low-priced bikes for commuters, the company said.
Giant is relatively positive about its electric bike business, saying its revenue contribution is expected to rise to 10 percent from 7 percent, buoyed by demand in Europe.
Giant shares rose 2.8 percent to NT$183.50 in Taipei trading yesterday, outpacing the TAIEX, which climbed 0.33 percent to 10,001.48 points.
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,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS