Maturing trends challenged by global stressors

■Stephanie Chao

The hand tools and hardware industries, like many other areas, are pressured to remain competitive as large-scale trends like digitalization and increasing awareness of carbon impact among customers have grown over the years. Other trends that signal, along with many others, are here to stay, and will shape the market in the future as these trends have matured over the years.

In the search for better profits and pastures, companies sought out demand in lucrative markets like automotive, aerospace, and medical-related industries that provide higher added value to the products, as these fields require greater accuracy and precision.

For companies like Eclatorq, Taiwan's top digital tool maker, choosing to invest in developing digital tools has positioned the company for the better, as it has directed resources into the aforementioned industries. In Q3 of 2022, the company reported record profits for a single quarter. While the traditional busy season in Q4 was reported to be less certain and growing at a slower rate, Eclatorq told local media that visibility remains to be around 2.5 to 3 months, signaling that customer order insights had not shown any abnormalities.

However, with the economic situation looking less positive for 2023, positioning in a market will become more important than ever. For Eclatorq, as markets reopen, having acquired new clients in the U.S. and Europe, and targeting high-end, higher-valued products, has allowed the company to maintain competitiveness in the near future.