LiFan Group Chairman to Visit Taiwan This Year

Taipei, June 25, 2009 (CENS)--Yin Ming-shan, chairman of the Lifan Group, a major auto and motorcycle maker in China, recently confirmed his Taiwan visit to source vehicle parts and advanced technologies by the end of the year, according to the Chinese-language economic daily newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN).

Yin said that he visited Taiwan 10 years ago when his group imported US$10 million worth of motorcycle parts. After 2003, he added, Chinese enterprises began developing in-house capability to produce the procured parts so his company stopped buying from Taiwan.

The Lifan Group was founded by Yin in 1992 to produce and sell engines, motorcycles, and automobiles, having sold 3.35 million engines, 1.77 million PTWs, and 110,000 cars last year to generate revenue of 12.58 billion RMB.

The entrepreneur was impressed by Taiwan's industrial techniques and welcomes possible cooperation proposed by Taiwanese firms. He also admitted that both the marketing skills and techniques related to big-displacement motorcycle engines at leading Taiwanese companies such as Kwang Yang Motor Co., Ltd. (KYMCO) and Sanyang Industry Co., Ltd. are better than Chinese counterparts, but KYMCO and SYM's insistence on high quality and price differ from Lifan's.

"KYMCO and SYM may be successful in most world markets but not China," Yin said. Because the average selling prices (ASP) of a PTW sold in rural areas is around 5,000 renminbi (RMB, or Chinese yuan), compared to about 15,000 RMB charged by the two Taiwanese brands.