Freight forwarder Dimerco Express Corp (中菲行) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$300 million (US$10.7554 million) for the first quarter, up 207 percent from a year earlier, thanks in part to higher freight rates.
Earnings per share (EPS) rose to NT$2.38, from NT$0.77 a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Dimerco, which focuses on strategic logistics planning and execution for the international transportation of goods, attributed the profit growth to higher revenue of NT$6.98 billion in the first three months of this year, up 68 percent from a year earlier.
Revenue from its air and sea cargo forwarding operations expanded 53 percent annually to NT$3.5 billion and 93 percent to NT$3 billion respectively, making up 51 percent and 44 percent of its total sales, company data showed.
However, its first-quarter gross margin fell from 15.95 percent a year earlier to 13.71 percent due to higher operating costs, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).
That was lower than T3EX Global Holdings Corp’s (台驊國際投資控股) gross margin of 18 percent, but higher than Soonest Express Co’s (捷迅) gross margin of 9.75 percent, companies’ data showed.
Soonest, a Taipei Exchange-listed forwarder that mainly concentrates on air cargo forwarding, on Wednesday reported a net profit of NT$48 million for the first quarter, up 50 percent from NT$32 million a year earlier, it said in a filing to the TWSE.
Its EPS grew from NT$1.1 a year earlier to NT$1.6, company data showed.
Soonest’s board of directors on Wednesday approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4 per share, compared with Dimerco’s proposed cash dividend of NT$5.2 and T3EX’s NT$3.2.
T3EX yesterday reported revenue of NT$2.06 billion for last month, up 64 percent from a year earlier, thanks to strong cargo demand as economies recover and freight rates rise in light of the Suez Canal incident in late March, it said in a statement.
Revenue from its sea freight forwarding totaled NT$1.26 billion for last month, up 204 percent from NT$417 million a year earlier, while its air cargo forwarding fell 26 percent year-on-year to NT$467 million, company data showed.
T3EX said it expects freight rates for air and sea cargo to remain comparatively high this quarter.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”