Taiwan Hardware Enjoys

Continuous Export Growth

Offering a comprehensive array of locks, more than 300 items, Steel Mark Enterprise has been in operations for 26 years, with all products exported. In addition to its headquarters in Tainan, southern Taiwan, Steel Mark has two partner factories in mainland China, one in Guangdong province and the other in Shanghai, working  closely together in developing new products and handling production.

"We have been in close cooperation with the two China factories for over 15 years where locks in big volume are made. High-end locks with less quantity remain to be made in Taiwan," noted Jimie Liu, president of Steel Mark Enterprise.

The locks offered by Steel Mark Enterprise include door locks, cabinet locks, padlocks, digital locks, furniture locks, window locks, tubular locks, lever locks, cylinders for locks and others.

The company has a strong R&D team, composed of nine mechanical and electric engineers, with three in Taiwan and six in mainland China, according to the president. "At least a few new items are introduced by our R&D team annually," Liu said.

North and South Americas are the main export markets for locks produced by Steel Mark Enterprise, taking 45 percent of its total shipment, followed by Europe at 30 percent. The president said the Asian and Pacific region absorbs 20 percent of shipment, with the Middle East taking the remaining five percent.

Quality-conscious

Liu said his company netted some 10 percent gain in export in 2005. "The first quarter of 2006 saw negligible increase in export, less than the same period the year before," revealed the president.

The president said zinc alloy, the raw material for making locks, has been sourced from Australia, whose prices have soared between 50 and 120 percent. "Under this pressure of surging price hikes of zinc alloy, we had no choice to raise our export price by an average of 30 percent," said Jimie Liu. "A fear of continuous price hike has been hovering in our mind."

Liu said he looks forward to working closely with foreign buyers in developing new products together. "We are a quality-conscious company and our locks are 100 percent guaranteed," Liu concluded.

Export gain

With more than half a century of experience in the manufacture of padlocks, Lung Huei Metal has been registering export growth over the last several years. In 2005, the company made a gain of some 20 percent in export despite the generally worldwide economic slowdown.

Arthur Chen, managing director of the company, attributed the increase in export to the slow economic recovery. "Introductions of new models of padlocks also contributed to the improvement of export performance," the managing director added.

He said while conventional padlocks account for some 40 percent of Lung Hui Metal's export revenues, 60 percent of its turnover come from high-end locks.

Europe was the biggest export destination for padlocks offered by Lung Huei Metal, accounting for 60 percent of its total overseas shipment, with 30 percent going to Japan, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The managing director said the remaining 10 percent is shipped to the United States. Chen said shipment to Japan, the biggest economy in Asia, has been on the decline due to the economic stagnation for a decade.

Chen said the padlocks produced by his company are comparable to those made in the industrialized nations in terms of quality. "We are not lagging behind the advanced countries as far as quality is concerned," noted the managing director. "However, there are a lots to be learned from the Western countries as far as marketing is concerned." Chen revealed that he has been making padlocks for several well-known brands in Europe and the U.S. on an OEM basis.

Quality suppliers

The managing director acknowledged that mainland China is more competitive in terms of prices mainly because the labor costs in the mainland are very much lower than those in Taiwan. "To avoid competing head-on with China in the world market in prices, we are taking advantage of our R&D capabilities to turn out better quality products for foreign buyers looking for quality and reliability instead of low prices only," stressed Chen.

A professional manufacturer of padlocks, Shopin Lock Co., located in Changhua, central Taiwan, has been manufacturing and exporting the products for more than 25 years.

The United States is the biggest market for padlocks offered by Shopin Locks, accounting for 75 percent of its total shipment, with the remaining 30 percent being shipped to Europe and other countries, according to Ralph Yang, sales manager of the company.

Price hike of zinc alloy

The padlocks are made of zinc alloy, sourced from Australia. "Prices of zinc allow have risen 30 to 40 percent over the last few years. In spite of this significant price hike, we raised our export price of our padlocks by less than 10 percent, considering the benefits of our customers first," stated the sales manager.

"In the face of this price pressure, we have no choice but to think of ways to cut production cost. In an attempt to prevent orders from drifting to low-priced suppliers in the mainland, we have to absorb as much losses as we can," commented Yang.

More than 20 varieties of padlocks are available with Shopin Locks. New models are introduced to the world market from time to time, according to the sales manager.

Shopin Locks is able to produce more than 200,000 pieces of padlocks a month.

New models released

Founded in 1973, Shin Shyu Enterprise is a specialist manufacturer of a wide variety of security locks, including padlocks, door locks, furniture locks and cylinders.

Battered by the rising labor and land costs in Taiwan, Shin Shyu Enterprise established another manufacturing facility in Haining, Zhejiang province, mainland China, in 1995.

Glendy Hsu, sales manager of the company, said more than 50 percent of the locks shipped abroad are made in its Haining factory on the mainland where more than 100 workers are employed. The remainder, which calls for higher technical skill, are manufactured in Taiwan.

For more than 30 years, the security locks offered by Shin Shyu Enterprise are exported the world over, according to the sales manager, with Europe taking 50 percent of total overseas shipment. The remaining 50 percent are shared by the U.S. at 30 percent, and Asia, including Japan, the Philippines and the Middle East, at 20 percent.

With the slow economic recovery worldwide, the firm's exports in 2004 and 2005 had improved over 2003 when only two to three percent increase was registered. The sales manager said of the locks exported, only 20 to 30 percent bear its Baton brand, and the remaining 70 percent are OEM orders.

Although the R&D department of Shin Shyu Enterprise is composed of only three engineers, new models are introduced to foreign buyers every now and then. "Without new products released yearly, we cannot afford to sustain steady market share," Glendy Hsu stressed. Engineers are sent to visit international hardware shows such as the Practical World in Cologne to keep them abreast of world market trend, she added.