Hiroca Holdings Ltd (廣華控股), a Taiwanese car parts maker based in China, last week said its new plant in Mexico is scheduled to begin production in the fourth quarter of this year.
The company plans to invest US$4 million in a joint venture based in Guanajuato, which would produce plastic automotive components for major car brands, including Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, Hiroca said in a statement on Friday last week.
The capacity expansion project is in line with Hiroca’s business strategy to attract more global brand clients, especially electric vehicle developers, by providing lightweight car parts.
Hiroca, which offers injection-molded parts for auto interiors, water-transfer printing and surface coating, said it has secured orders for electric car parts from Nissan Motor Co, Shanghai-based start-up NextEV (蔚來汽車) and XPeng Motors (小鵬汽車), which is backed by funding from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
The Dongguan-based firm saw its net profit last quarter grow 2.59 percent on an annual basis to NT$189.61 million from NT$184.82 million (US$6.37 million from US$6.21 million), with aggregate sales increasing 9.99 percent to NT$1.99 billion from NT$1.81 billion.
Gross margin fell to 25.25 percent from 27.69 percent because of higher labor costs over the period, but the appreciation of the yuan against the New Taiwan dollar has helped boost its profitability, Hiroca said.
Earnings per share were NT$2.26 in the first quarter, up from NT$2.2 during the same period last year, the company said.
Hiroca said it has an optimistic outlook for this year, as some of its brand clients, including Nissan and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, are to start shipping their new models next quarter.
Hiroca shares closed at NT$102 on Friday in Taipei trading, and is down 10.92 percent this year.
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