Shihlin Electric launching capacity expansion projects

Taipei, June 11, 2004 (CENS)--In a bid to grab more businesses in the booming automobile and motorcycle market in Asia, Taiwan's Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp. (SEE) has launched a series of aggressive expansion projects since last year.

SEE, in technical cooperation with Mitsubishi of Japan, is one of Taiwan's leading makers of heavy-duty electrical machinery and electrical auto parts. Company Chairman Hsu Yu-jui said that SEE has continuously completed several second-stage plant expansion projects at two plants in mainland China (including one in Fuzhou, Fujian Province and another in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province) and Vietnam in the first half of this year.

By the end of the year, Hsu added, his company will completely move the production of auto electrical parts to a new plant in northern Taiwan's Hsinchu from Taipei. In addition, SEE will start the second-stage expansion projects at its plants in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province and Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, next year.

In a bid to develop sales of auto parts in Asia, SEE began deploying its overseas production bases for electrical auto parts several years ago. It now operates eight facilities abroad to produce various auto electrical parts, starter motors and alternators, including those in Changzhou, Xiamen, Wuxi, Fuzhou and the Hunan Province in China as well as Vietnam.

The revenue generated from SEE's auto parts business outstripped that of its core heavy electrical machinery business for the first time last year.

According to SEE, its electrical engine parts plant in Changzhou and auto body electrical parts plant in Fuzhou have completed second-stage expansion works for mass production in May. SEE estimated that the Changzhou and Fuzhou plants can generate output value of NT$300 million (US$8.96 million) and NT$1 billion (US$29.85 million), respectively, this year, both up over 50% from a year earlier.

SEE's plants in Wuxi is facing filled capacity with flooding orders. The Taiwanese parent company plans to buy a new land in neighboring area and start constructing a new plant in mid-2005 while also kick off the second-stage expansion project at its Xiamen facility.

According to SEE, its Vietnamese plant used to supply motorcycle electrical parts to Vietnam Manufacturing Export Processing Co. Ltd. (VMEP) there, a subsidiary of local powered two-wheeler (PTW) maker Sanyang Industry Co., Ltd. But a first-tier motorcycle parts supplier of Honda Japan in Vietnam recently contacted SEE, hoping to get semi-finished products from the plant there.

SEE said that its Vietnamese plant is expected to ship semi-finished electrical parts modules to the supplier in Vietnam, which will ship complete parts to Honda' motorcycle plant there. SEE completely expanded a capacity expansion at its Vietnamese plant for mass production in April this year. This year, SEE said, the plant's production value is expected to grow by 50% from last year.