Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Foreign currency risk
We and our principal subsidiaries use U.S. dollars as our functional currency because most of the transactions are conducted and settled in U.S. dollars. All of our revenue and a significant portion of our operating expenses are denominated in U.S. dollars. The functional currency for our in-house packaging and testing facilities in China is U.S. dollars and a significant portion of our capital expenditures are denominated in U.S. dollars. However, foreign currencies are required to fund our overseas operations, primarily in Taiwan and China. Operating expenses of overseas operations are denominated in their respective local currencies. In order to minimize exposure to foreign currencies, we maintained cash and cash equivalent balances in foreign currencies, including Chinese Yuan (“RMB”) as operating funds for our foreign operating expenses. For our subsidiaries which use the local currency as the functional currency, including the JV Company, the results and financial position are translated into U.S. dollar using exchange rates at balance sheet dates for assets and liabilities and using average exchange rates for income and expenses items. The resulting translation differences are presented as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) and noncontrolling interest in the consolidated statements of equity. Our management believes that our exposure to foreign currency translation risk is not significant based on a 10% sensitivity analysis in foreign currencies due to the fact that the net assets denominated in foreign currencies pertaining to foreign operations, principally in Taiwan and China, are not significant to our consolidated net assets.
Interest rate risk
Our interest-bearing assets comprise mainly interest-bearing short-term bank balances. We manage our interest rate risk by placing such balances in instruments with various short-term maturities. Borrowings expose us to interest rate risk. Borrowings are drawn down after due consideration of market conditions and expectation of future interest rate movements. As of June 30, 2021, we had $136.0 million outstanding under our loan with the Bank and $29.4 million outstanding under our capital leases, which were subject to fluctuations in interest rates. For the year ended June 30, 2021, a hypothetical 10% increase in the interest rate could result in $0.7 million additional annual interest expense. The hypothetical assumptions made above will be different from what actually occurs in the future. Furthermore, the computations do not anticipate actions that may be taken by our management should the hypothetical market changes actually occur over time. As a result, actual impacts on our results of operations in the future will differ from those quantified above.
Commodity Price Risk
We are subject to risk from fluctuating market prices of certain commodity raw materials, particularly gold, that are used in our manufacturing process and incorporated into our end products. Supplies for such commodities may from time-to-time become restricted, or general market factors and conditions may affect the pricing of such commodities. Over the past few years, the price of gold increased significantly and certain of our supply chain partners assess surcharges to compensate for the rising commodity prices. We have been converting some of our products to use copper wires instead of gold wires. Our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected if we have difficulty obtaining these raw materials, the quality of available raw materials deteriorates, or there are significant price changes for these raw materials. For periods in which the prices of these raw materials are rising, we may be unable to pass on the increased cost to our customers which would result in decreased margins for the products in which they are used and could have a material adverse effect on our net earnings. We also may need to record losses for adverse purchase commitments for these materials in periods of declining prices. We do not enter into formal hedging arrangements to mitigate against commodity risk. We estimate that a 10% increase or decrease in the costs of raw materials subject to commodity price risk, such as gold, would decrease or increase our current year's net earnings by $0.6 million, assuming that such changes in our costs have no impact on the selling prices of our products and that we have no pending commitments to purchase metals at fixed prices.
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