Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan aspires to produce sophisticated all-electric injection molding machines wired for today's smart factories. One bottleneck to making cost-conscious offerings, though, has been the dearth of domestically made components.
That is beginning to change, as Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Asian Plastic Machinery Co. Ltd. is showing off machines at the Taipei Plas trade show featuring servo motors from Taiwanese supplier Delta Electronics Inc.
One machine, the 230-kiloton Supermaster 230CV, is optimized for making multi-color products. A Supermaster 190 EJ featuring four Delta servo drives targets energy savings in clean-room production, the company says.
The configurations on display are equipped with more Taiwan-sourced equipment: robots from Taoyuan-based WE-Technology Automation Co. Ltd. and Hi-More Robot Co. Ltd.; a hopper-dryer and temperature controller from New Taipei City-based Shini Plastics Technology Inc.; a dryer from Taoyuan-based Ye Pin Co. Ltd.; and a conveyor from Taichung-based Li Jing Industrial Co. Ltd.
Applications include consumer electronics, medical equipment and packaging.
APM is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Chen Hsong Holdings Ltd. and makes its machines at two factories in Taiwan.
Sales director Aron Chao refers to the Taiwanese offerings as the parent company's "Lexus" brand, as they offer higher performance precision while being priced about 20 percent higher than machines from the 60-year-old parent company, which manufactures at three mainland factories.
Taiwan and the parent company have different markets, too. While China, Vietnam and India are the key customers of Chen Hsong's Chinese machines, Asian Plastic's top markets include Turkey and Brazil.
However, all of the parent company's subsidiaries share overseas sales and service offices. Chen Hsong Holdings plans to open such offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam.
Sales in Vietnam remain strong: in the last six months, three companies have placed orders for 50 or more injection-molding machines from the parent company, Chao said.
Chen Hsong Holdings plans to open an assembly plant in India next year, Chao said.
Chen Hsong Holdings, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, reported sales of HK$1.67 billion (US$213 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31, a 15 percent increase from the previous year. Sales to the mainland and Hong Kong grew 10 percent to HK$1.12 billion (US$143 million) while Taiwanese sales leaped 25 percent to HK$126 million (US$16 million). Before-tax profit leaped 64 percent to HK$129 million (US$16.4 million).
The company employs 250 in Taiwan. The full group has 2,500 employees.
Taipei Plas runs Aug. 15-19 in Taipei.
