HIWIN Enjoys Substantial Growth in Q1 Sales
2010/03/01
From:CENS.Com (by Ben Shen)
The clear recovery of the semiconductor and machine-tool industries are helping HIWIN Technologies Corporation, Taiwan`s leading manufacturer of linear-motion devices, to predict to see first-quarter sales to top NT$1.4 billion (US$43.75 million), for a historic high.
The company is currently enjoying a close to 100% in production equipment utilization rate. With continued influx of orders from semiconductor, medical and biotechnology industries, the company`s monthly orders exceeded NT$700 million (US$21.875 million) in each month of the first quarter.
HIWIN scored NT$481 million (US$15.03 million) in sales in January, up 243.7% from NT$139 million (US$4.34 million) year-on-year. An institutional investor noted HIWIN will see monthly sales exceed NT$400 million (US$12.5 million) in February, compared to NT$380 million (US$11.875 million) a year earlier. It is expected the company will continue to see monthly sales hit a historic high record in March.
Eric Y.T. Chuo, chairman of HIWIN, said his company has seen a substantial growth in orders from domestic leading machine-tool manufacturers over the past few months.
In the beginning of this year, HIWIN just completed construction of a new factory in Yunlin Science Park, central Taiwan. Recently, the company has ordered several units of multi-tasking machine tools from Japan, which will be installed in the new plant sometime in March. After the new plant begin operations, the company will see total production capacity increase by 15%. To facilitate the inauguration of the new plant, the company plans to recruit 1,000 workers this year. So far this year, the company has recruited 300-strong workers.
HIWIN and its subsidiaries registered NT$6 billion (US$187.5 million) in combined sales last year, down 20% from NT$7.5 billion (US$234.37 million) a year earlier. Despite the sales decline, the company has edged out IKO of Japan as the world`s third-largest manufacturer of linear guides. The HIWIN Group has set a goal to score NT$10 billion (US$312.5 million) in combined sales this year.
|