In recent years, developments across the world have been unpredictable, from global geopolitics, trade wars, Brexit, to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the uncertain times, YOKE has gradually stabilized its operations amidst the turbulence, and its revenue in 2021 was NT$2.823 billion, climbing back to the pre-pandemic level of 2018, with a 19.31% YoY growth compared to 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the global economy. The management team of YOKE strives to overcome all the difficulties amidst the unfavorable factors and is determined to carry out all the improvement measures according to the direction of each strategic plan.

To address the global digitalization trend, YOKE has been actively investing in the transformation of product digitalization since 2016, from production history, maintenance, and operation use, in line with the increasing focus and awareness of occupational safety and care for employees. The RFID SupraTag technology is a subtle yet transformational change promoted by YOKE in the lifting hooks and fittings industry. Embedded in each 8 Series product is an RFID tag or attached with a SupraTag, providing customers with a systematic way to manage the product’s use time, inspection schedule and inspection methods, integrating the hook's point of inspection and use requirements in the same platform, and actively promoting the digitalization of industrial safety through the application of cloud technology.

2021 also saw the increasing momentum of ESG. The sixth edition of the Company’s sustainability report will be published. Looking back, since the first edition, our attitude and commitment remains unchanged: to make outstanding products, to take good care of the employees, and to lead our suppliers to work together for joint prosperity. This is Sustainability Roadmap for YOKE. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues unabated, the sunny outlook is still optimistic. After a period of consolidation and reset, the YOKE team will continue to meet the sustainable challenges ahead with full throttle.

Our vision at YOKE is to become a relevant player with stable profit margins and steady growth in the global market for industrial safety hooks, which we seek to demonstrate to our stakeholders. We shall continue to expand the market for industrial hoist hooks and protective safety gear while demonstrating the compatibility between “safety” and sustainability” to the world as our goals for the future.

Safety is our first priority. Our vocation is to allow everyone in the world to possess the right to safety, and to showcase to the world the results of compatibility between "safety" and "sustainability", which has always remained the unwavering goal of YOKE.

Under the continuous influence of COVID-19 pandemic, YOKE has internalized the risk management of COVID-19 into its regular operations management. Under the strict safety management mechanism, normal production operation has been gradually resumed in 2021, and the capacity utilization rate is climbing to the peak with growing demand from customers. The continuous promotion of Total Production Management (TPM) for the 3rd consecutive year has played a key role in this year to strengthen our capabilities in Total Productive Maintenance and equipment restoration, reducing the equipment restoration time by 12.62% and extending the average mean time between failures (MTBF) by 16.95% in 2021, allowing YOKE to meet customers' orders.

In line with digital transformation trends, YOKE has upgraded its SAP ERP to a cloud-based system; through the application of cloud technology to continue to strengthen and optimize operational processes to improve operational efficiency, as well as the integration with peripheral systems. This not only simplifies operational processes, but also addresses the past issue of needing to communicate back and forth, which may cause the problem of information errors. The rapidly recovering market also continues to speed up new product development time through the integration and systematization of R&D processes to rapidly meet customer needs.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is a critical issue for the iron and steel industry in 2021. Even if the current product lines of YOKE are not directly covered by the regulation, the chance of being included in the regulation may be higher than other industries when the product scope is further expanded. At the same time, with the increasing calls for carbon reduction, YOKE has put thought into its role in this key issue. Carbon reduction issues and energy management still need to be empowered by an effective management structure to establish an effective improvement mechanism, therefore, in addition to the continuous greenhouse gas inventory, the Company also plans to introduce ISO 50001 energy management systems in 2022, and commence planning the calculation and verification of ISO 14067 carbon footprint standards. YOKE is committed to investing in critical actions at critical moments, and to conduct more in-depth product carbon reduction assessment and improvement on the issue of environmental sustainability, and to make preparations for advance deployment in order to meet future business requirements and financial market concerns, as well as to spearhead various sustainable actions.