MANUFACTURING
Tong Yang profit surges
Tong Yang Industry Co (東陽實業), which manufactures bumpers and automotive sheet metal, yesterday reported that pretax profit surged 1,500 percent last month from a year earlier to NT$363 million (US$11.38 million), the second-highest monthly figure in the company’s history. In the first nine months of this year, pretax profit expanded 279 percent from the same period last year to NT$2.19 billion, or pretax earnings per share of NT$3.8, the highest for the period. This came as the company’s revenue grew 26.5 percent year-on-year to NT$1.9 billion last month, with cumulative revenue in the first nine months totaling NT$15.97 billion, an 18.8 percent increase from the same period last year. The company said it is accelerating production to cope with a rebound in demand and is gearing up to develop new products to grasp new business opportunities.
COMPONENTS
TXC reports record profit
Quartz crystal components maker TXC Corp (台灣晶技) on Wednesday reported its highest September pretax profit in the company’s history thanks to foreign exchange gains and Apple Inc’s launch of new iPhones. Pretax profit rose 46.5 percent month-on-month and 13 percent year-on-year to NT$441 million last month, TXC said in a regulatory filing. TXC supplies frequency-control crystal components, which are used in networking, mobile communications, mobile computing, automotive applications, lighting and home automation. In the third quarter, pretax profit was NT$1.06 billion, up 3.4 percent quarterly, but down 2.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said. Despite weakening demand, TXC reported cumulative pretax profit of NT$2.895 billion in the first nine months, nearly flat from the same period last year, or pertax earnings per share of NT$9.35, it said.
EMPLOYMENT
Furloughed worker data fall
The number of workers on official furlough programs in Taiwan fell by more than 4,000 as travel agencies brought back staff from unpaid leave ahead of an easing of COVID-19 border controls yesterday. Data released by the Ministry of Labor on Tuesday showed that the number of workers on furlough programs had fallen by 4,714 to 13,336 as of Friday last week from 18,050 on Sept. 30. The number of furloughed workers in the support service sector had dropped by 3,154, or about 35 percent, to 5,817 as of Friday last week, the data showed. Amid rising domestic consumption, the number of furloughed workers in the lodging, and food and beverage industry fell to 953 from 1,567, the data showed. The number of furloughed workers in the transportation and warehousing industry fell to 918 from 1,249, while the manufacturing sector saw the number of workers on unpaid leave fall to 3,355 from 3,434, the data showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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