Singapore firms both winners and losers in yuan's downtrend

Singapore

THE US-Sino trade war and the fallout on the Chinese yuan are both benefiting and hurting Singapore companies - depending on what's their currency of costing and sales vis-a-vis their reporting currency.

Among the beneficiaries are several companies with costs in yuan and sales in US dollars.

For mainboard-listed contract manufacturer Hi-P International, a big boost came from the renminbi's (RMB) decline against the US dollar, as its China cost base is in yuan while it sells mostly in the US unit and reports in Singapore dollars.

Hi-P posted a 128 per cent jump in foreign exchange gains for its third quarter to S$6.5 million, which was attributed mainly to a strong…