Sunrex becomes world's No.1 NB keyboard maker

Taipei, Dec. 31, 2003 (CENS)--Sunrex Technology Corp. will see shipment of 10 million keyboards for notebook personal computers this year, outpacing Alps of Japan as the world's No.1 supplier of the product.

Alps was the world's largest supplier with total shipment of seven million keyboards for NB PCs last year. The Japanese company is expected to ship eight million keyboards for NB PCs this year.

Sunrex boasted it would record shipment of over 10 million keyboards this year, up 50% from last year's 6.58 million. The company shipped 9.15 million keyboards in the first 11 months of this year and will ship another one million this month. The company's major customers are Dell Computer of the U.S., J.P. of South Korea, and Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc., Arima Computer Inc., Inventec Corp., and Asustek Computer Inc.

Affected by the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, the company saw a slow shipment in the first half of this year. Since the beginning of the second half of this year, Sunrex has seen constant growth in shipment because of the influx of orders from a new customer—Wistron Corp., and the increased orders from Compal Electronics Corp., Dell Computer, and Asustek Computer.

H.L. Tsai, president of Sunrex, said his company would continue enjoying growth in production and sales because of the increase in world output of NBs amid the advent of the wave of machine replacement.

The company sold 5.79 million for a 20.63% world market share in 2001 and 6.58 million keyboards with 21.24% share in 2002. The company will see the market share rise to 25% this year because of the expected output of 10 million keyboards.

With research and development center in Taiwan, Sunrex has two plants in Wujiang of Jiangsu Province and Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, mainland China. In the near future, the company will raise the output of Wujiang plant.

The company said it would make all-out efforts to develop such markets as Japan and Europe next year. Recently it has seen increase of orders from some Japanese and European customers.

Despite the concentration on keyboard production, the company is also launching pilot sales of brand-new product--tablet monitor PCs to South Korea. The company will market the new products in a full swing next year.