In addition to featuring a wider range of product offerings, Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co. Ltd. soon will be making more machines in mainland China than in Taiwan.
The company announced the news at APPLAS in Shanghai.
Lin Ruiyang, manager of domestic injection press sales, said the company's Guangzhou factory, which completed an expansion in the spring, will make a total of 800 presses this year and record sales of 230 million yuan (US$31.1 million), up 40 percent from 2006. The numbers are still lower than those of the headquarters factory in Taichung, Taiwan, which will make 1,000 machines and have 365 million yuan (US$49.4 million) in sales. But Lin said the Guangzhou factory will surpass the Taiwan facility in one to two years.
``That shouldn't be a surprise,'' he said, considering that 70-80 percent of the presses made in the Taiwan plant are shipped to the mainland.
The currency exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and Taiwan dollar also impacts customers' buying decisions.
``They compare quotes for the same machine from both our mainland and Taiwan factories. Many of these customers also have production in both mainland and Taiwan,'' Lin said.
Victor Taichung, Taiwan's largest press maker, also exports 40 percent of its overall sales to customers in Southeast Asia.
All-electric machines, accounting for 20 percent of the company's business, continue to grow. To complement the five existing all-electric models, with clamping forces of 50-200 metric tons, the firm will launch 250- and 300-tonne models in 2008. Production of all-electric presses has remained in the Taichung plant.
Clamping forces for hydraulic machines will be extended to 30-2,000 tonnes next year, Lin said.
The APPLAS show was held Nov. 29-Dec. 4.
