Hiwin of Taiwan to Acquire Distributors and Set up Manufacuring in Japan

According to foreign wire services, Hiwin Technologies Corp., Taiwan's No.1 and the world's No.2 manufacturer of ball screws and linear guideways for precision machines, plans to acquire distributors and set up manufacturing in Japan as part of its plan to take over the global lead from THK of Japan in three years.

Hiwin will double its sales outlets and staff in Japan to boost revenue in fiscal 2016 to 20 billion yen (US$186.9 million) from billions of yen in 2013.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that Hiwin had begun supplying machine-tool components to manufacturers under the Toyota Motor Group and plans to add outlets and employees in Japan for market expansion.

The Taiwanese company runs six stores in Tokyo and Kobe and plans more for Toyama, Shiga Prefecture, Fukuoka Prefecture, and Shizuoka Prefecture, with its Japanese employees to double to to 200 soon.

Japanese media also reports that besides selling ball screws and linear guideways Hiwin will begin to sell industrial robots in Japan in  fiscal 2015, then set up factories in Japan to build such robots, on which Hiwin Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Chuo has declined to comment for his company does not elaborate on operations in specific markets as prudent business policy.

Hiwin regards Japan as a very important market and booked 36 booths at the Japan International Machine Tool Fair 2014 (JIMTOF 2014), held  Oct. 30-Nov. 4 in Tokyo, said Chuo.

The company demonstrated complete range of ball screws, linear guideways and industrial robots, as well as ball screws and guideways that underscore intelligent technologies at JIMTOF.

The company has contracts for ball screws, linear guideways and robots to keep production lines humming throughout 2014.

Hiwin's sales for H2 will improve over that in H1, with Q4 sales to also improve over that in Q3.

Industry executives project the company's earnings per share (EPS) for Q3 to outperform its EPS of NT$1.29 for Q2, helping drive its earnings for the first three quarters to an estimated NT$5.5-6 per share. (KL)