Kim Forest Enterprise Co (金萬林), which focuses on molecular testing, yesterday reported that revenue last month doubled from a year earlier to a record NT$54.04 million (US$1.95 million) as domestic demand for COVID-19 testing rose amid an outbreak in Taiwan.
Almost half of the revenue was generated by a laboratory established to assist hospitals in Taipei with COVID-19 testing, as hospitals did not have enough staff to handle the rising number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, Kim Forest spokesman Vincent Yang (楊文明) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Although samples must be collected by doctors or nurses, as the invasive process requires a long swab to be inserted into the subject’s nasal cavity, laboratory technologists can conduct certain steps including extracting samples and testing, Yang said.
Photo courtesy of Chi Mei Medical Center
As Kim Forest produces test kits for SARS-CoV-2 — which causes COVID-19 — supplies its own PCR machines and is an agent for foreign-made PCR machines, its labs have ample capacity to facilitate testing, he said.
“We can analyze up to 10,000 samples a day, which is more than is needed, as the maximum number of samples collected in Taipei in a day is about 2,000,” Yang said.
Kim Forest’s labs have worked with the government’s COVID-19 testing program and several private companies that paid to have their employees tested, with help from hospitals, he said.
Although the lab entity is not a company, Kim Forest owns it, so could still recognize the revenue into its consolidated figures, he said.
Twenty percent of last month’s revenue was from sales of detection kits, Yang said, adding that many hospitals purchased kits from the firm, as they have been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Moreover, its kits can be used with many styles of diagnosis machines, he said.
“The revenue structure is different from last year, when the main source of revenue was overseas sales of PCR machines,” Yang said. “Demand for kits and testing was lower last year, as the pandemic was relatively contained in Taiwan.”
Marketing activity for Kim Forest’s PCR machines was restricted, as staff could not easily visit hospitals or schools amid a level 3 alert, Yang said.
However, the company is confident that sales would pick up this year, as the Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced a subsidy of NT$5 million for each hospital assigned as a testing location.
In the first five months of this year, Kim Forest’s cumulative revenue grew 76.43 percent annually to NT$164 million, company data showed.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS