Taipei, May 15, 2006 (CENS)--U.S. gigantic retailers including Sears and K-Mart visited Taiwanese hand-tool suppliers exhibiting digital tools at a trade show recently held in Las Vegas, showing their interests in the Taiwan-developed tools equipped with a microelectronics gauge.

E.C. Barton even agreed to send a delegation to Taiwan in October this year to talk over procurement deals.

Core technology of the tool, the smart gauge, was developed by the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). The gauge can sense various forces including torque and strain as well as data such as calorie burned on work. Although some Western suppliers have introduced similar products, they are massive products as compared with the ITRI-developed gauge.

A record number of 81 Taiwanese enterprises demonstrated their latest products at 123 booths in the show. Of the Taiwanese exhibitors around 40 displayed digital tools.

The tools attracted heavyweight U.S. retailers including E.C. Barton, ACE, Home Depot, Assured Imports, Amazon, Orchard Supply Hardware and K-Mart.

Taiwan Hand Tool Manufacturers` Association Chairman Charles Hsieh pointed out that Taiwan` s digital tools were darling products at a hardware trade show held in March in Cologne. However, none of Taiwanese suppliers dared to accept orders considering that a projected digital-tool joint venture had not taken shape. Some Taiwanese tool suppliers and ITRI are co-forming the venture, which is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

ITRI projected Taiwan` s hand-tool exports to top NT$100 billion (US$3.1 billion at US$1:NT$) in 2009 mostly thanks to digital tools, whose revenue is estimated at NT$35 billion (US$1.09 billion) in the meantime. Last year, Taiwan exported NT$70 billion (US$2.1 billion) worth of hand tools, representing 2% of the exports worldwide.
(by Ken)