Rexon Industrial Corp Ltd (力山工業), a maker of fitness equipment and power tools, saw its shares drop 15.63 percent in the past two sessions after a major client, Peloton Interactive Inc, last week announced recalls of its Tread+ and Tread treadmills.
In a statement on Wednesday last week, Peloton said that it had reached an agreement with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall and stop distribution of its Tread+ and Tread products in the US, refund consumers, and work on additional hardware modifications, following reports that a child died and others were hurt in accidents involving its treadmills.
Since 2017, Rexon has gradually increased the contribution of fitness equipment to its overall revenue, becoming a major supplier for Peloton’s exercise bikes, and Trade+ and Tread treadmills.
Photo: Chan Chao-yang, Taipei Times
Rexon also manufactures fitness equipment for other global brands, such as Life, Precor, True and Freemotion.
Last year, fitness equipment revenue accounted for 77.6 percent of Rexon’s revenue, with Peloton contributing about 71 percent, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said.
“At present, Rexon has not commented on the recalls. Given Peloton’s large-scale recalls and treadmill modifications, we believe that Peloton might request Rexon to slow down the shipment of treadmills and repair those products,” Jih Sun said in a note on Friday.
“In addition, it was originally expected that Tread would be launched in the US at the end of May and start to contribute revenue. But due to the recall, the launch of Tread might be delayed until the third quarter, which is expected to have a certain degree of impact on Rexon’s business.”
In the US market, the Tread product was only sold as part of a limited invitation-only release from November last year to March, Peloton said in a statement.
Taichung-headquartered Rexon on Friday reported revenue of NT$1.47 billion (US$52.7 million) for last month, up 197.58 percent from a year earlier and hitting the highest for the month of April, as shipments of exercise bikes and treadmills rose amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first four months of the year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$5.51 billion, an annual increase of 188.04 percent and also the highest for the same period in the company’s history, company data showed.
Net profit in the first quarter increased 264 percent year-on-year to NT$324.46 million, with earnings per share rising from NT$0.49 to NT$1.79, a company financial statement showed.
Rexon shares on Friday closed 6.34 percent lower at NT$78.3 in Taipei trading, while Jih Sun downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy.”
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us