Baking oil manufacturer Namchow Holdings Co Ltd (南僑投資控股) yesterday reported an unaudited net profit of NT$92.11 million (US$3.32 million) for last month, up from the previous month’s NT$57 million, but down from NT$104 million a year earlier.
The firm — which also manufactures a wide range of products including frozen dough, noodles, ice cream and dish soap — blamed the annual decline in net profit on it receiving less investment gains from its Shanghai subsidiary, Namchow Food Group (Shanghai) Co (上海南僑食品集團).
Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$0.42 last month, while revenue grew 2.24 percent annually to NT$1.66 billion, the company said.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
Cumulative net profit in the first eight months of this year rose 42.96 percent annually to NT$688 million, with EPS of NT$2.77, while consolidated revenue increased 16.76 percent year-on-year to NT$12.74 billion over the period, company data showed.
Analysts said the company’s Taiwan business would continue to recover steadily this month as the COVID-19 situation in the nation has generally been brought under control and the baking industry entered its peak season ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The company’s China business would still benefit from stable sales of baking oil products and frozen foods, while its production of packaged foods, baked rusks and rice crackers for babies in Thailand would continue to steadily contribute to sales, analysts said.
China remains the largest market for Namchow, accounting for about 60 percent of its sales last year, followed by Taiwan at 24 percent, New Zealand and Australia at 6 percent, the US at 4 percent, Europe at 3 percent and Thailand at 1 percent, the company’s annual report for shareholders showed.
Namchow shares fell 0.72 percent to close at NT$48.45 in Taipei trading on Friday.
They have increased 3.09 percent so far this year, underperforming the broader market’s 17.27 percent rise over the period.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last