Largan’s gross margin rises on scale expansion and better product mixOVER 55 PERCENT: Q4 was the best quarter of last year in terms of gross margin, but net profit was lowest due to more than NT$2bn in foreign exchange lossesBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterLargan Precision Co’s (大立光) gross margin improved in the fourth quarter of last year thanks to an expanded business scale and an improved product portfolio, the smartphone camera lens maker said yesterday. Gross margin rose to 55.85 percent, up 2.15 percentage points from 53.7 percent in the third quarter of last year, marking the highest quarterly gross margin of the year, said the leading maker of optical lens modules, which also produces voice coil motors and sleep monitoring systems. In the fourth quarter of 2021, gross margin was 55.85 percent, company data showed. Photo: CNADespite the improvement in gross margin, the Taichung-based firm’s net profit last quarter fell to the lowest in six quarters due to higher foreign exchange losses. The company booked foreign exchange losses of NT$2.42 billion last quarter, Largan said.

BYD plans push into India’s burgeoning EV marketBloombergChinese automaker BYD Co (比亞迪) is planning a bold push into India’s electric vehicle (EV) market, joining a rush of foreign peers jockeying for a bigger share of the world’s fourth-biggest vehicle market. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett-backed BYD is seeking to capture 40 percent of India’s EV market by 2030, Sanjay Gopalakrishnan, senior vice president of its local unit, said in an interview at the India Auto Expo on the outskirts of New Delhi. A BYD HAN electric vehicle is pictured in Toluca, Mexico, on Nov. 29 last year. While India is a value-conscious market, BYD will prioritize introducing higher priced vehicles to showcase its “premium” technology, and then slowly work toward mass-market vehicles, he said. BYD has invested US$200 million in its electronics and vehicle factories in India, he said.

Reopen Taoyuan Air Base, lawmaker saysSPEED MATTERS: If Taiwan’s fighters flew out of the Taoyuan base they would take six minutes to reach the area of intrusion as opposed to 15, the TPP’s Chiu Chen-yuan saidBy Huang Ching-huan, Tu Chu-min and Jason Pan / Staff reportersThe shuttered Taoyuan Air Base should be reopened to meet the challenges posed by China’s increased incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) said yesterday. “If our fighter jets were launched from the Taoyuan base, they would only need six minutes to reach our air defense zone’s northeast sector,” he said. “We urgently need to bolster air defense capacity for northern Taiwan, so the Taoyuan Air Base must be reopened.”Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan speaks to reporters in Taipei on Dec. 15 last year. Situated southeast of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan Air Base dates back to 1944. The air force stopped using it in 2007, when it became the Taoyuan Naval Base.

Lithuanian group to arrive in Taipei for a six-day visitSECURITY TALKS: The delegation is scheduled to meet the president, senior officials and defense groups to share knowledge and supportStaff writer, with CNAA delegation from the Lithuanian Committee on National Security and Defense is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan for a six-day visit today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The nine-member delegation is headed by committee chairperson Laurynas Kasciunas and Lithuanian Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan vice chair Dovile Sakaliene, the ministry said in a statement. Taiwanese and Lithuanian flags are displayed at the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius on Jan. 20 last year. Taiwan typically names its overseas representative offices “Taipei Economic and Cultural Office” or “Taipei Representative Office,” in keeping with the host countries’ preference to avoid any language that would imply Taiwan is a separate country from China. Beijing has punished Lithuania for the inclusion of “Taiwanese” in the name of Taiwan’s office, seeing such moves as encouraging formal independence.

The service company said in a news release that it would take the issues raised by its employees into consideration. Photo: CNAThe union — which non-unionized ground staff have enlisted to speak on their behalf — on Friday said that ground crew members were additionally seeking higher base salaries and holiday bonuses relative to temporary workers. The service company on Saturday defended its bonus policy, saying that it posted a combined deficit of NT$99.38 million in the first three quarters of last year. The service company did not benefit from a surge in the airline’s cargo business, as it mostly serves passenger flights, it said. EVA Airways, which is planning to pay its employees three months of salary as year-end bonuses, has not announced any wage increases.

Workers clash with police in ChinaAFP, BEIJINGScores of workers have clashed with police at a COVID test kit factory in China, video spreading on social media showed yesterday, as the country navigates a path out of its “zero COVID-19” policy. Photo: ReutersA man who posted video from the scene said in an accompanying caption that many workers had not been paid. Other posts alleged that Chongqing-based pharmaceutical company Zybio Inc (中元匯吉) suddenly fired workers who had only been recruited weeks earlier. Agence France-Presse could not confirm exactly when the videos were captured, although multiple social media users said the clash took place on Saturday night into yesterday morning. Protests centered on labor issues and targeting individual companies occur frequently in China, despite official efforts to clamp down on unrest.

Oil closes week with large losses amid uncertaintyBloombergOil on Friday posted a large loss the first week of trading in the new year as demand uncertainty continued to hang over the market. Brent Crude for March delivery fell 0.15 percent to US$78.57, dropping 8.54 percent from a week earlier. Photo: ReutersSaudi Arabia cut prices for crude sold to Asia and Europe for next month, signaling concerns over the near-term outlook. Still, oil prices might exceed US$140 per barrel this year if Asian economies fully reopen after COVID-19-related lockdowns, hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand said. Oil fell during the fourth quarter and US benchmark prices fell close to those levels last month.

Japan wants G7 nations to team up against ‘economic coercion’ by ChinaBloombergJapan wants G7 countries to take a coordinated approach this year aimed at preventing the “economic coercion” that China has applied to some of its trading partners. “We expect effective responses to economic coercion will be a major item at this year’s G7 summit,” he said. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura speaks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Thursday. China has repeatedly applied economic retribution toward trading partners amid diplomatic disputes. Beijing has criticized G7 nations for what it says are their own protectionist moves designed to prevent China’s economic rise.

Photo: EPA-EFESamsung’s operating profit fell by 69 percent to 4.3 trillion won (US$3.4 billion) for the three months ended last month, missing the average estimate of 6.7 trillion won by analysts. Sales fell to 70 trillion won, the company said in a statement. Samsung is slated to provide a full financial statement with net income and information on divisional performance on Jan. 31. Samsung could sustain low profit in the first quarter after yesterday reporting preliminary operating profit for the fourth quarter last year about 35 percent below consensus, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Masahiro Wakasugi said. Its NAND chip segment might have been unprofitable last quarter due to severe price erosion, while DRAM might have generated a profit, Wakasugi said.

Citi appoints Aftab Ahmed to lead the bank’s operations in TaiwanStaffCitibank Taiwan Ltd’s (台灣花旗) board of directors yesterday elected Aftab Ahmed, a former Citi country officer (CCO) for the Philippines, as the bank’s new chairman, pending regulatory approval. Aftab, a Citi veteran of more than 40 years, has previously worked as Citi Taiwan’s global consumer banking operations and technology head, and thus has a good understanding and knowledge of the local market. Citi appoints Aftab Ahmed to lead the bank’s operations in Taiwan. Under his leadership, Citi Taiwan has consistently delivered strong results and has been smoothly moving forward with the GCB Divestiture. Citi was also consistently named Best Bank by Euromoney and Best International Bank by Asiamoney.

“The property market is heading for a downturn in both transactions and prices, although some developers seek to push prices higher with their own capital,” Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan managing director Billy Yen (顏炳立) said. The strategy would prove to be overreaching and impractical in light of a global economic slowdown and monetary tightening, Yen told a media briefing. Cushman & Wakefield Taiwan managing director Billy Yen speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Commercial property transactions shrank 17.6 percent year-on-year to NT$125.8 billion (US$4.1 billion) last year, while land deals plunged more than 40 percent to NT$171.8 billion, the property consultancy said. Profits from property transactions on the part of companies are subject to income taxes of 20 percent, while individuals might pay up to 40 percent, depending on their income level.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 47.0 last month from 48.0 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the PMI to come in at 48.0. The 50-point mark separates contraction from growth on a monthly basis. The drop was the biggest since the early days of the pandemic in February 2020. The data offered

Here are some highlights:POKEMON, BUT MAKE IT BIRDSPeople on Tuesday arrive to attend CES Unveiled ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mohamed Soliman of Atmos Gear shows off the Atmos Gear inline electric skates on Tuesday during CES Unveiled before the start of the CES tech show in Las Vegas. ELECTRIC SKATESJournalists had fun zipping around the exhibit hall on remote-controlled, electric inline skates from French startup AtmosGear. An exhibiter on Tuesday apples a temporary tattoo with a Prinker digital temporary tattoo device during CES Unveiled before the start of the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The device allows the user to print a temporary tattoo in cosmetic ink.

Foreigners sold a record NT$1.23 trillion of shares last yearBy Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterForeign institutional investors last year sold a net NT$1.23 trillion (US$40.07 billion) of local shares, the highest amount on record, after selling a net NT$23.82 billion in the final week of the year, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. The exchange’s data showed that they sold a net NT$454.09 billion in 2021 and a net NT$539.52 billion in 2020. Photo: CNALast year, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$17.49 trillion, accounting for 39.56 percent of total market capitalization, the exchange said. Shares in financial holding firms faced huge selling pressure last year due to increased volatility in the global stock and bond markets amid central banks’ monetary tightening. Surging COVID-19 insurance claims in Taiwan were another negative factor for some financial holding firms, such as Shin Kong Financial, Fubon Financial and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), that count insurance business as one of their major sources of earnings.

Photo: AFPThe CES show officially opens on Thursday, but companies would begin to vie for the spotlight with the latest tech wizardry as early as today. CES is to be spread over more than 7 hectares, from the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center to pavilions set up in parking lots. After being a major theme at CES last year, virtual reality headgear aimed at transporting people to the metaverse are expected to again to figure prominently. Tech designed to better assess health and connect remotely with care providers would also be strong at CES. “If you are the kind of person who is off the grid growing vegetables, then CES is not for you,” Greengart said.