Taiwan Exports Record High Volume of Cars in 1st Half: IDB

Taipei, Oct. 20, 2010 (CENS)--Thanks to the sharply appreciated Japanese yen, many Japanese automakers are outsourcing to technical partners in Taiwan to cut cost.

Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) recently announced that in the first half Taiwan exported some 13,000 cars, a record high for the period and already outpacing the annual average of about 10,000 units in the past few years. Eighty percent of the exports were produced by local Kuozui Motors Ltd. for affiliated Japanese automaker Toyota.

The island is expected to export some 30,000 cars in 2011, IDB forecasted.

Some local original equipment (OE) auto-parts suppliers are also expanding their capacities. Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. Ltd., the largest rubber-tire manufacturer in Taiwan, for example, is scheduled to kick off soon two big investment projects. One is to set up a 20-hectare radial-tire plant in Yunlin of Taiwan with total investment of about NT$12 billion (US$387.1 million), and another a 41-hectare radial tire (for trucks and passenger cars) in Changhua of Taiwan with projected investment of NT$12 billion (US$387.1 million) too.

IDB said that the recovering domestic economy has reflected in the increasing investments in local manufacturing industry, totaling in the first two quarters 1,359 major investment projects valued at NT$551.9 billion (US$17.8 billion), compared to NT$277.8 billion (US$8.96 billion) in the same period of 2009.

The export value of local manufacturing sector in the first seven months this year was US$155.8 billion, IDB said, up 47.4% YoY (year-on-year), better than Singapore's 35% and South Korea's 33.4%.