المشروبات وتخزين الطاقة يقودان تنويع أنشطة C.T.I.، ورئيس المجلس يتوقع نمواً انفجارياً العام المقبل

📰 Press coverage: Liberty Times Net — Business　·　Reporter: 林菁樺

Auto-parts maker C.T.I. (2230) has diversified widely, and next year its core piston-ring business will benefit from a buoyant aftermarket while its two new areas — liquor and new energy — both come into flower. Chairman Lu Wan-hsien says: "Results are going to grow explosively."

C.T.I. has been the hottest OTC stock this year, climbing from NT$31.7 at the start of the year to a recent high of NT$178.5, a gain of 463% that has drawn considerable investor attention.

C.T.I. is Taiwan’s largest piston-ring manufacturer and moved into the new-energy field four years ago, concentrating on storage equipment and developing small storage units from 1 to 50KW for homes, offices, factories and convenience stores. The company says talks on cooperation are under way, and that the new-energy business could begin contributing revenue as early as the second quarter of next year.

C.T.I.’s biggest growth driver is its liquor business in China. Lu Wan-hsien says the company already had a staff-catering operation there, serving seven or eight plants of over 500 people each, and formally entered liquor this year.

He says C.T.I. took on two products this year, Jinfu and Wuliangye, with Fenjiu now being prepared for distribution. Getting into China Tobacco’s retail outlets was the key, and two or three more products are due on shelves next year.

Lu Wan-hsien jokes that outsiders see the move into liquor as straying from the company’s trade, but that it is really a return to his own: his university degree was in a related field. He notes that Beihai Duyu Songhao E-Commerce, in which C.T.I. has invested, handles the agency for famous Chinese liquors, and that it formally signed a product display and sales agreement this year with Suzhou Zhongyi Huitong Technology, entering the China Tobacco system — comparable to a state monopoly bureau.

C.T.I. stocked only 3,000 Jiangsu province tobacco outlets this year, and those alone contributed NT$135 million of revenue over seven months, with monthly revenue already at the NT$20 million level. The number of outlets could expand to 30,000 next year, scaling monthly revenue tenfold. Lu Wan-hsien is decidedly optimistic about the outlook, and is targeting 10% of Jiangsu’s outlets — 38,000 sales points.