Goodway Sees After-tax Earnings Double to NT$107 M. in Q2

Taipei, July 30, 2008 (CENS)--Thanks to cutting operating costs and the stabilized N.T. dollar against the greenback, Goodway Machine Corp. saw after-tax earnings double to NT$107 million (US$3.53 million at US$1:NT$30.3) in the second quarter of this year from the previous quarter.

Goodway said its gross operating margin has recovered to 30% in June. The company registered NT$159 million (US$5.24 million) in after-tax earnings, or NT$1.94 (US$0.06) earnings per share, in the first half of this year. The company said it would see a 20% year-on-year growth for this year's overall sales.

Hsu Fu-chu, president of Goodway, his company scored NT$686 million (US$22.64 million) in sales in the second quarter of this year, up 22% year-on-year. He attributed the double-digit growth in Q2 sales to the inauguration of a new plant in central Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park.

He predicted Goodway will continue to see sales growth in the third quarter of this year because of a three-month visibility for orders. Seeing the downturn in U.S. and European economies, Goodway is escalating production of high-quality but price-competitive machine models to get rid of possible price competition in the second half of this year.

Poised as Taiwan's largest manufacturer of CNC (computerized numerically controlled) lathes, Goodway has established own brands of "Goodway" and "Yamaseki." And its line includes standard and multi-tasking machines.

Over the past several years, Goodway has been dedicated to developing high-tier multi-tasking machines to counter undersellers. The company said it shipped 200 units of high-tier multi-tasking machines in the first half of this year, accounting for 45% of its total sales.

Goodway saw production value for lathes reach NT$2.4 billion (US$79.2 million) last year, commanding 12% of Taiwan's overall production value in this product.

The company said Europe was its biggest export outlet, accounting for 40.7% of its total sales in the first half of this year, followed by the Middle East with 18.1%, Asia 14.3%, Taiwan 13.7%, and America 8.79%, in the first half of this year.

At present, Goodway is actively developing such emerging markets as Egypt, Thailand and Argentina, aiming to offset declining sales in the U.S. and European markets.