Nien Made warns closed border to affect shipment

closed border affect shipment

Window curtain supplier Nien Made Enterprise Co on Saturday said that the closure of the border between Vietnam and Cambodia would affect shipments of its products made in Cambodia.

The company — whose product portfolio includes window coverings such as venetian blinds, shutters and shades— said nonetheless that it had prepared contingency plans to mitigate the effects of the closure.

Nien Made has four production bases in China’s Dongguan and Shandong, as well as a plant in Cambodia. 

The company ships products from the Cambodian plant through the Port of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, it said. 

Vietnam and Cambodia on Thursday last week announced a temporary closure of the border to stem the spread of COVID-19 in the region. 

The restrictions would affect shipments of its Cambodian ready-made window coverings, Nien Made said. 

“Nien Made has informed its big-box clients about these policies and will make good use of its Cambodian warehouse facilities,” the company said. 

“On top of that, Nien Made’s shipments might reroute to Cambodia’s Sihanoukville Port, a more distant facility, to ease latent impacts,” it said. 

The company’s big-box clients include Home Depot Inc and Walmart Inc, with other major clients including dealers, designers and small specialty stores, it said.

Nien Made said its California subsidiary had asked its staff to split into shifts or work from home.

The company reported net income for last year grew 24.1 percent year-on-year to NT$4.5 billion (US$148.51 million), with earnings per share rising to a record NT$15.37 up from NT$12.39 in 2018.

Consolidated revenue increased 9.4 percent to NT$23.9 billion last year, thanks to market share gains, better custom-made window covering prices and improved production efficiency, the company said.

Nien Made’s board has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$10 per share, the same as the payouts in the previous three years, as it took into consideration capacity expansion plans in Myanmar, Cambodia and Mexico this year, it said in a statement. 

In the first two months of this year, Nien Made’s consolidated revenue declined 8.19 percent annually to NT$3.08 billion due to delayed factory production in China last month amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Factory resumption rates were up to 80 percent this month, the company said, adding that it faces no material shortages and logistics problems in China thanks to its high degree of vertical integration.