2004 Taipei AMPA ends with record exhibitors, foreign buyers

Taipei, May 28, 2004 (CENS)--The Taipei Int'l Auto/Motorcycle Parts & Accessories Show (Taipei AMPA 2004) has become one of the most important international procurement hub in auto parts and accessories line, and the just-ended 2004 event saw record exhibitors and foreign buyers, according to Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).

Statistics compiled by TAITRA showed that a total of over 20,000 foreign and local buyers visited 2004 Taipei AMPA, up 2,830, or 16%, from last show in 2002. The 2003 show was canceled due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Yuan Ching, chairman of U.N. Great International Co., a leading auto parts and accessory trading company, said that at the show he saw an increasing number of foreign buyers returned to Taiwan suppliers from mainland China. The company's president Sun Ta-cheng explained that Taiwan traders can serve to offer quality products produced at lower costs in mainland China with better quality-control management by Taiwan companies.

Sun said that the Taipei AMPA show has been gaining its global importance due to it meeting the one-stop-shopping requirement from global buyers.

Safety Control Cable Industry Co., Ltd. President Hsu Si-yuan said that most of the buyers at this year's event have strong procurement and decision-making powers and many of them are representatives of big international auto makers and tier-one parts suppliers. That, Hsu said, implied the increasing importance of the Taipei AMPA.

Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a leading maker of high-precision transmission gears, said that it landed a big-ticket gear order from General Motors (GM) of the U.S. and was negotiating with relevant order details with GM representative at the fair.

In order to further expand the Taipei AMPA's exhibition effects, TAITRA said that it invited many procurement officials of auto makers and first-tier parts suppliers in the U.S., Brazil, France, Turkey, Australia and South Korea. Companies invited included TRW, Delphi, GM, Kia, Uzel, DHB, Agrale and Tenneco. Over 300 local parts and accessory makers met the foreign procurement representatives at this year's event, TAITRA added.

Among the foreign buyers, TAITRA said, those from Asia nations accounted for 50%, and North America and Europe 13% and 9%, respectively. Buyers from Russia, Turkey and Poland grew remarkably from last show, TAITRA said, showing the successful market-segmentation strategy of local parts makers.

TAITRA said that more and more foreign buyers of auto parts and accessories buyers who originally procured from France, Italy and Japan have gradually switched their orders to Taiwan companies, especially for global positioning system (GPS) navigation systems, in-auto liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, in-car multimedia entertainment systems, car alarm systems, reverse image display and over-speed radar sensors etc.

TAITRA said that many exhibitors expressed strong willingness to participate in the 2005 Taipei AMPA. The council said that next year's show is expected to have a larger scale scale than this year's 827exhibitors and 2,170 booths, both record highs.

TAITRA claimed that the Taipei AMPA has become the largest auto parts and accessory show in Asia and one of the key shows in the world with most lucrative business opportunities.