Audio electronics maker Merry Electronics Co (美律) on Thursday said it plans to invest US$12.24 million in a Vietnam-based joint venture with a Chinese supplier to help customers avoid heavy tariffs levied by the US on Chinese goods.
Merry, which makes speakers for Apple Inc’s iPhones, would hold a 51 percent stake in the business, while China’s Luxshare Precision Industry Co (立訊精密) would claim the remaining 49 percent through its subsidiary, United Tao Electronics Co Ltd (聯滔電子).
The joint venture, temporarily named Merry Luxshare (Vietnam), would have US$24 million in starting capital, Merry said.
The US$40 million venture was formed in response to US clients’ demand to move production out of China by expanding overseas manufacturing facilities, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Merry said that it chose Vietnam because of its advantageous tax policies and proximity to China, which keeps transport costs low.
Moving to Vietnam also helps Merry establish a stronger supply chain in the Southeast Asian region, it said, pointing to existing facilities in nearby Thailand.
In October last year, Merry president Allen Huang (黃朝豊) told investors at an earnings conference that the company was increasing shipments from its Thailand plant, which mainly carries out US orders.
The US market makes up about 50 percent of the company’s total audio components sales, the Central News Agency reported on Thursday.
Huang has said he aims for the Thailand plant to contribute about 20 percent of overall sales this year, compared with 1 to 2 percent last year.
Meanwhile, Merry said that it would leave upcoming production in Vietnam for Luxshare to oversee and manage, while Merry would be in charge of client services and sales.
The Vietnam plant would mainly produce Apple’s Airpods as the US company’s top supplier Inventec Corp (英業達) has reached full production capacity at its plants in China and Malaysia, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday.
Selling nearly 60 million units last year, Apple had earlier asked suppliers to ramp up production to 45 million units in the first half of the year to meet the robust market demand, the Nikkei Asian Review reported earlier this month.
Meeting that volume might prove difficult, as an outbreak of COVID-19 in China has stalled production of essential components and disrupted shipment schedules, the Nikkei Asian Review said.
In a separate Taiwan Stock Exchange filing on Thursday, Merry said its board of directors approved a cash dividend distribution of NT$7.7095 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 61.63 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$12.51 last year.
Last year, Merry saw net profits jump 23.79 percent to NT$2.55 billion (US$84.1 million), from NT$2.06 billion in 2018.
The company is to seek approval of last year’ s earnings report and cash dividend distribution at its annual shareholder’s meeting on June 19.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS