Ni Hsin Berhad Annual Report 2017

Ni Hsin Resources Berhad (653353-W) Annual Report 2017 12 Management Discussion And Analysis (continued) Future Prospects Global economic growth in 2017 grew to 3.3%, the strongest result in six years. Alongside China’s stellar performance and robust dynamics in the United States, the Euro area logged another period of fast economic growth and will likely continue led by domestic demand amid an improving labor market and expansionary monetary policy. In Japan, the economy marked in Q4 2017 the longest period of sustained growth in three decades. Ample accommodative monetary policies by some of the world’s key central banks and only moderate monetary tightening by others will keep financial markets overly supplied this year. Moreover, the global trade cycle enjoys good health, which is expected to persist this year. Loose monetary conditions, a tight job market and resilient trade flows should also continue to boost economic activity. Political uncertainty in some countries such as Brazil and Italy, fears of rising protectionism particularly by the U.S., a sharp tightening in financial conditions and persistent geopolitical tensions are the main downside risks to global economic growth. FocusEconomics panelists expect the global economy to grow 3.4% in 2018. Among developing nations, the Asia (ex-Japan) region is benefiting from strong global trade and China’s resilient economic activity. With Russia’s economic recovery gathering pace this year and the Euro area logging robust growth in 2017, the economic outlook for Eastern Europe continues to improve. (Source: Focus Economics). The Group will intensify its efforts to further develop and expand existing market as well as penetrating into new markets worldwide. Among the measures undertaken and planned are the forging of new strategic partnerships, participation in trade exhibitions worldwide and introducing products other than the traditional products being transacted in existing established markets like Japan. The partnership with Mingkeda Holding Co. Ltd. Shenzhen, China (“Mingkeda”) for the distribution of PENTOLI brand cookware products and our stainless steel convex mirrors in China has taken off and expected to bear fruits in FY2018. Ni Hsin and Mingkeda are working aggressively on the marketing platforms both conventional and digital to reach out to the consumers in China. We are also aggressively building the foundations through digital and e-commerce technology to pursue the local market as well as Indonesia for the PENTOLI brand. The inner rice bowl, a healthy replacement for the common aluminium rice cooker bowl, is being aggressively promoted to the Japan and South East Asian markets. Besides selling the rice bowl product, we are also targeting to supply our clad metal to the manufacturers of these rice bowls. We are currently working on a new segment of the cookware market, the Food and Beverage Segment, to supply our commercial series of pressure cookers and cooking pots in Malaysia and Singapore. As for the Convex Mirrors we have developed a new version of coated Convex Mirror with unique characteristics such as environment friendliness, scratch proof, heat resistant, antibacterial and anti-fog. This product is currently targeted at Japan and Europe.