Automotive components maker Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業) on Friday held a beam-raising ceremony at its new manufacturing plant in the Chiayi Dapumei Precision Machinery Park (嘉義大埔美精密機械園區).
The new facilities include a smart plant with automated production lines and a dormitory for 300 employees.
BIG INVESTMENTS
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Hota is investing NT$4.2 billion (US$140.23 million) in the new plant and aims to start production by the end of next year to supply components for electric vehicles for US and European clients.
The company, which supplies Tesla Inc and BorgWarner Inc, already operates two plants in the same industrial park.
Together with the new plant, Hota has so far invested NT$14 billion in the park, Chinese-language media reported on Friday.
The company has proposed investing an additional NT$8 billion in a fourth plant with eight to 10 production lines and building an industrial museum in the same park, Hota chairman David Shen (沈國榮) said to the Commercial Times.
However, due to COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe, the US and other countries, major automakers have decreased production, so Hota is expecting lower revenue this year, Shen said.
In the first four months of this year, cumulative revenue fell 20.78 percent year-on-year to NT$1.58 billion, company data showed.
However, with reopenings in Europe and the US, major automakers are resuming production and have begun to replenish their inventories, Shen said.
Hota’s business is expected to stabilize and would gradually return to a growth track next month, he added.
The company on Thursday reported a net income of NT$143.7 million in the first quarter, down 25.3 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$0.56.
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
Due to decreased demand and lower capacity utilization in late March, the company’s gross margin fell to 26.42 percent and operating margin fell to 11.53 percent in the first quarter, compared with 29.22 percent and 15.17 percent in the same period of last year respectively.
Analysts said that Hota’s revenue is expected to grow in the third and fourth quarters, driven by production increases in Tesla’s China-based factories, rebounding orders for electric vehicles from other brands and the recovery of the US auto market.
Hota’s shift to automated production lines might also drive a higher gross margin in the latter half of the year, analysts said.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
RSS