Taiwan's Machine-tool Firms See Higher Profit Margin in January

Taipei, March 19, 2012 (CENS)--Despite the appreciation of NT-dollar against the greenback, Taiwan's major machine-tool manufacturers still saw a 1% to 2% increase in profit margin in January due to lower raw material and key components and parts costs.

Taiwan's major manufacturers of machine tools, including Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co., Awea Mechantronic Co., Goodway Machine Corp., Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture Co., Kao Fong Machinery Co., Falcon Machine Co., and Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., all posted growth in profit margin in January.

Taiwan Takisawa scored NT$210 million in January sales, up 2.05% year-on-year. Despite the slight growth in monthly sales, the company saw operating profits increase to NT$15.97 million in January from NT$5.3 million a year ago, with NT$5.65 million in pretax earnings, or NT$0.08 per share, in January, also claiming profit margin had returned to the normal 20% in January from last year's 18%.

Kao Fong saw first-quarter profit margin increase by 2% year-on-year, despite the appropriation of NT$2 million in foreign-exchange losses.

With NT$1.3 billion orders backlogged, Goodway said it has steady influx of orders from North America and Thailand, and profit margin has returned to the normal level of between 27% and 28% in January with order visibility till the end of June this year.

Fu Chun Shin currently has NT$1.26 billion orders backlogged to fill production lines till the end of the third quarter, claiming to have encountered only a slight loss in foreign exchange in January due to hedging of account receivables.