Taiwan textile makers working to counter mainland competition

Taipei, Sept. 16, 2003 (CENS)--With the ever-expanding output of mainland Chinese long-fiber manufacturers, Taiwan's textile manufacturers are facing increasing difficulty in surviving in the global polyester suiting market. To counter, some of them have tried to diversify their manufacturing strategies to turn out more high-end cloth.

Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp., one of the island's leading textile manufacturers, has switched to the production of garment cloth and has recently developed dyed nylon cloth for the high-end market. Honmyue Ent. Co. has invested some NT$1 billion (US$29 million at US$1 = NT$34.5) to expand its operations in both Taiwan and mainland to join the nylon cloth market too. Moreover, the company is ambitious to become the largest manufacturer of nylon oxford cloth on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Delicacy Ind. Co., a dynamic textile maker in southern Taiwan, unveiled last month its newly developed stretch nylon cloth, which is believed the secret weapon for the company to gain profits in the second half of the year.

Industry insider analyzed that as the rear-end dying technology of nylon filament is quite sophisticated, Taiwan's textile manufacturers still get an upper hand in this area if compared with their mainland counterparts. With this advantage, many Taiwan textile makers have placed emphasis on the production of nylon cloth in recent years.

Mainland textile makers, with increasing expansion in the production of polyester cloth, are estimated to generate some 1,300 metric tons of such cloth in 2004, about four times the amount turned out by their Taiwan counterparts.

Yeh Ming-chou, general manager of Honmyue, said that the competition with mainland textile manufacturers is virtually a race with "time" for Taiwan's textile makers. He called for local makers to speed up enlarging the lead over their mainland counterparts for a distinct market segmentation. Otherwise, they are very likely to be outpaced by their mainland rivals soon.

Currently 60% of Honmyue's textile products are nylon oxford cloth, with monthly output averaging eight million yards. If the expansion of its plants in Shanghai and Dongguan of Guangdong Province are completed, the firm's monthly production capacity of nylon oxford cloth is expected to reach 20 million yards.