Kwang Dah Chairman B.S. Ke to Be Shoe-in as Next TAMI Chairman

The directors and supervisors of the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) have agreed to select chairman B.S. Ke of Kwang Dah Enterprise Co., Ltd., concurrently the convener of the association's board of executive supervisors, as the association's next chairman.

On March 26, the TAMI, representing around 2,700 manufacturers, will hold an election to nominate new directors and supervisors, who will then choose the new chairman from its own rank.

Ke is reportedly the only association member who has vowed to contest for the top position, making the election straight forward, with his current position in the association expected to be filled by chairman T.W. Wei of Fong Kee International Machinery Co., Ltd.

Ke's company, founded in 1945 by his father, is reportedly Taiwan's biggest manufacturer of packaging machinery for medicines, but, under Ke's helm, has branched out into construction, semiconductor, IC design, and land consolidation businesses.

The 58-year-old Ke, a mechanical engineering graduate of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, is optimistic about economic prospects in 2015, believing the island's machinery industry is likely to generate revenue up to NT$1 trillion (US$32.25 billion) this year. He suggests the Taiwan government to let NT-dollar devalue to the NT$33-34 against US dollar to make the island's exports more competitive, which makes sense for the leading information technology, machinery, bicycle, furniture and hardware makers rely on exports for revenue.

According to chairman, S.C. Hsu, the island shipped US$20.88 billion of machinery throughout 2014, increasing 5.7 percent year on year. He predicts the Taiwan industry overall to grow 10 percent year on year in exports this year due chiefly to steady growth in global automotive-motorcycle, aircraft, energy, and railway industries. However, the island's machine-tool  sector, he thinks, will grow only somewhere between 6 percent and 8 percent as a result of inability to compete against Japanese and S. Korean rivals due to relatively steeper devaluations of Japanese yen and South Korean won than NT-dollar.

In Jan.-Feb. this year, Taiwan exported US$3.12 billion of machinery, up 9.5 percent from the same period of 2014, but as much as NT$98.9 billion if denominated in NT-dollars, surging 14.9 percent.

(KL)