Taiwan Sakura Corp (台灣櫻花) expects annual revenue to grow 5 to 8 percent year-on-year on the back of steady growth in kitchen appliance sales and has spent NT$418 million (US$13.22 million) on land in Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰) for a new manufacturing facility.
Investing up to NT$500 million in a new facility should resolve insufficient manufacturing space at its other Taichung plants, while increasing output to meet rising demand, the company said.
Taiwan Sakura operates three plants in the city’s Wufeng, Shengang (神岡) and Daya (大雅) districts. The Wufeng plant makes kitchen products, while the Shengang plant produces range hoods and the Daya plant manufactures water heaters and gas stoves.
The new Wufeng plant should be operational in two to three years, Taiwan Sakura spokesman Li Hui-hsun (李惠恂) told the Taipei Times on Thursday.
The company expects sales of digital water heaters to increase to 60 percent of total water heater sales in two years, compared with 50 percent last year, Li said, adding that this would boost this year’s revenue.
Sales of kitchen products should increase this year, as they showed a compound annual growth rate of 49 percent from 2013 to last year, he said.
“We expect annual sales of our water heaters, gas stoves, range hoods and kitchen products to grow following promotional activities in the second half of the year,” Li said.
Despite the effects of US-China trade tensions, the company’s cumulative revenue in the first four months of this year increased 0.75 percent year-on-year to NT$1.83 billion.
Gas water heaters have seen steady sales so far this year and could remain a major item for the company, Li said.
Taiwan Sakura is considering entering the home decoration segment, as no brand dominates the market and customers are unsatisfied with existing products, Li said.
“We are known for our kitchen products and after-sales service, and we have a broad customer base and an extensive network of brand stores, giving us an advantage in entering the market,” he said.
A booming market in Vietnam is expected to add further sales momentum to Taiwan Sakura, the company said.
Taiwan Sakura is evaluating whether to expand in Vietnam, where the rising population promises a growing kitchenware market.
The company over the past 15 years has collaborated with local agents to market its products in Vietnam and established an office there in November last year.
The company reported that first-quarter net income increased 1.89 percent to a record NT$198.11 million, from NT$194.43 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share improved slightly from NT$0.89 to a record NT$0.91, while gross margin rose 0.84 percentage points to 36.02 percent.
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS