Taiwan’s three listed freight forwarders yesterday reported annual growth in first-quarter revenue as freight rates remain high amid rising demand.
T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投資控股) reported the largest increase, 133.16 percent to NT$5.89 billion (US$207.13 million), ahead of Dimerco Express Corp’s (中菲行) 66.4 percent growth to NT$6.89 billion and Soonest Express Co’s (捷迅) 35.69 percent expansion to NT$1.06 billion, data from the companies showed.
T3EX’s revenue generated from sea freight business advanced 208 percent from a year earlier to a record NT$3.86 billion in the first quarter, the company said.
Photo courtesy of Dimerco Express Corp
Sea freight business contributed 65 percent of the firm’s total revenue last quarter, up from 52 percent last year, it said.
The growth came as sea freight rates were buoyed by a shortage of containers and workers, unsolved congestion at ports and stronger-than-expected demand for freight transport, T3EX said in a statement.
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, which reflects spot freight rates on major routes that Shanghai is on, was above 2,500 points from January to last month, compared with the same period last year when it ranged from 900 to 1,000 points.
‘ADVANTAGE’
“When it is more difficult to book cargo space due to demand exceeding supply, we have an advantage over peers with smaller business scale, as we have a better connection with shippers,” T3EX said.
The air cargo forwarding business grew 57 percent to NT$1.3 billion in the first quarter, the company said.
It contributed 22 percent to the company’s total revenue, compared with 33 percent last year, as air cargo rates began to fall in February, it said.
The Baltic Exchange Air Freight Index showed that rates from Hong Kong to North America fell to US$5.48 per kilogram on average last month, down from US$6.43 per kilogram in January, while rates from Hong Kong to Europe fell from US$4.28 per kilogram to US$4.05 per kilogram.
AIR RATES
Air cargo rates would remain comparatively high in this quarter, as some customers might consider air amid a mismatch between sea cargo demand and supply, T3EX said.
Dimerco said that its revenue from air cargo forwarding grew 53 percent to NT$3.5 billion in the first quarter, while sales from sea cargo forwarding advanced 93 percent to NT$3 billion.
Dimerco and Soonest focus more on air cargo, with the former generating 51 percent of its first-quarter revenue from air cargo forwarding and the latter about 70 percent, data from the two firms showed.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)