Taiwan's Garment and Textile Manufacturers See Opportunities in Mainland China

With an eye to the lifting of global quota restrictions on textiles and garments in 2005, leading Taiwanese manufacturers of garments and other textile products are making plans to set up either factories or sales channels in mainland China. Among the firms making such plans are Everest Textile Co., Makalot Industrial Co., Roo Hsing Garment Co., and Texma International Co.

A top Everest official reports that his company will set up a knitted fabric mill to supply long-filament fabrics in China, because prominent American garment brands will establish sales channels there after 2005 and the demand for fabrics is expected to grow sharply as a result.

Everest exports a full range of woven-filament fabrics and yarn-dyed woven fabrics used in the apparel, home-textile, and clothing accessories industries around the globe: EVERTEK products that feature innovative technology; EVERMOSS products for outerwear; EVERCAMAX products for city wear; EVERSUEDE products, also for city wear, as well as outerwear and upholstery; EVERBLACK products for city wear; and MAXFREE products for outerwear, city wear, active/sportswear, and junior wear. The company also offers high-density, high-performance fabrics for outerwear, active-sportswear, and junior wear, as well as cotton and cotton-mixed fabrics for city and casual wear.

Everest is authorized to label its rolls of fabric as LYCRA, TEFLON, and SCOTCHGUARD.

Makalot, which supplies internationally known companies such as GAP and Old Navy, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Target, K-mart, Express, Carter's, JC Penney, and May Co., will set up an office in Shanghai this year and expand production in its overseas plants by a substantial amount in 2004 in order to meet the booming demand in mainland China.

The company claims to be known for its ability to supply a wide variety of garments of very high quality. It has acquired contract manufacturers in numerous foreign countries, including the Philippines, mainland China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and El Salvador.

Roo Hsing, another of Taiwan's top garment makers, operates large plants in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and now plans to establish sales offices in mainland China. Initially, these offices will be charged with procurement and manpower training; next year, the company will move more aggressively to develop the mainland market.

Texma International already has an office in Shanghai and plans to set up a factory in the mainland with a work force of 1,500 and a monthly production capacity of 50,000 to 60,000 dozen garments. The proposed plant is expected to begin production before the end of next year.

Other Taiwanese garment makers that are planning to tap the Chinese market include Carnival Industrial Corp., which is setting up sales outlets in Shanghai. It will also have outlets in Beijing by the end of the year, and will designate distributors in as many provinces as possible as quickly as is practicable. Carnival already makes products bearing the Henny Cotton brand in China.

Formostar Garment Corp. began selling its own-brand garments in the mainland seven years ago. The company's chairman, Roland Tsao, says that he will also market other well-known brands there. The firm has invested NT$100 million (US$2.9 million at NT$35:US$1) in the expansion of production capacity at its Vietnam factory, and plans another investment of the same amount in a mainland Chinese plant that will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million garments.