Manufacturers Reposition for WTO and Tougher Environmental Laws

For Taiwan's manufacturers of paper-making and -processing machines, 2003 promises to be a year of new challenges and opportunities. The challenges will come from greater foreign competition as Taiwan drops tariffs on paper-related imports to meet the guidelines of the World Trade Organization. Yet this threat is balanced by the opportunities created by new environmental laws in Taiwan that restrict the use of plastic tableware and shopping bags, leading to increased local demand for paper-making equipment.

Taiwan is one of the largest producers of paper-making and -converting machines. The producers in these lines supply a wide range of models, including whole-plant equipment for pulp and paper making, paper-finishing equipment, paper-converting plants, corrugated-cardboard-making machines, paper-bag-making machines, paper-slitting machines, cardboard-case-making machines, paper slitters & rewinders, paper cutters, board laminating and coating machines, roll-type paper-towel-making and packaging machines, roll-type toilet-paper-making machines, multi-kraft paper-bag-making machines, waste-paper processing equipment, paper-napkin-making machines, and facial-tissue-making machines.


Award-Winning Quality

Ming Wei Paperware Machinery Co. is a veteran manufacturer and exporter of corrugating and converting equipment for the cardboard-manufacturing industry. Since its establishment in 1986, the company has steadily invested in the development of world-class products at reasonable prices.

Ming Wei has three modern production facilities in Taichung, central Taiwan. Over the past five consecutive years the company has won the 'Top Machinery Exporter Award' granted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The company exports its machines around the world, though mainland China, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are its biggest overseas markets. It has a branch office in Bangkok and claims to have a 43% share of Thailand's corrugated-cardboard equipment market, with 187 customers there.

Company president Liu Ming-chuang attributes Ming Wei's success to its high-powered R&D department, which regularly turns out top-notch machines.

Liu says his company has also benefited from its commitment to after-sales service. "In the next few years, we will launch joint-venture companies in some promising markets to move our production and after-sales services closer to end-users, " he notes. Ming Wei already has after-sales service centers in mainland China, Thailand, Dubai, and the U.K.

Liu adds the Middle East and Africa are two target areas for the launch of joint-venture production.

To ensure the quality of its products, Ming Wei strictly follows the ISO9002 quality-assurance system throughout the company. Among the company's major products are corrugated-color-case-making equipment (including laminators, creasing and cutting machines, high-speed automatic-diecut machines, and two-color flexo printers), corrugated-cardboard-making equipment (including shaftless-mill roll stands, single facers, and multi-cassette single facers), CNC flexo-printer slotter and rotary-die cutters, and automated folder gluers.

"To ensure the quality of our machines, we import key materials and components from Japan, the U.S., and some European nations, " Liu says.


Quality Conversions

Can Go Company Ltd., established in 1986, specializes in manufacturing paper converting and packaging machines and disposable products making machines, including whole plant solutions.

Its converting and packaging machines include hygienic tissues paper-converting machines, facial-tissue-making machines, and toilet-tissue-rolling machines in various design specifications.

Its line of disposable-product-making machines includes disposable-tableware-making machines, aluminum-foil tray/container-making lines, paper-converting machines, film-foil rewinder machines, and slitting/rewinder machines.

The company's major export outlets include Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia.


Tissue Titan

Chan Li Machinery Co., Ltd., established 20 years ago, is a provider of converting equipment, whole-plant solutions, and technical know-how for the production of high-quality tissue paper.

The company specializes in roll-type tissue-paper converting equipment and packaging systems. Most of its products are exported, mainly to the U.S., Australia, the Middle East, North America, mainland China, and Southeast Asia.

The company's major product lines are kitchen-towel and toilet-roll converting lines, tail sealers, accumulators, log saws, slitters and rewinders, wrapping machines for roll and facial tissues, and fully automatic handkerchief-converting lines.

The company recently introduced an innovative fully automated handkerchief-converting machine that combines the printing, embossing, and laminating processes in a single production cycle, and which can process up to 120 packages per minute.

Chan Li marketing manager Danny Lien attributes the successful innovation of the machine to the efforts of his company's R&D department. "Over the past few years, we have made great achievements in the integration of mechanical and electrical systems on our machines, " says Chan. "We also adopt modular designs to allow us more flexibility in expanding the functions of our machines and provide a wider range of cost-effective options to our customers."

The firm is a machine supplier to Taiwan's top-four tissue-paper manufacturers, including Kimberly-Clark, Scott, Yuen Foong Yu Paper, and Tien Long Paper, which together have a 90% market share in the domestic tissue-paper market.

The company exports 95% of its output and is the largest supplier of tissue-paper converting equipment to Argentina and Australia. "We are the major supplier to the top three tissue-paper manufacturers in these two nations, " boasts Lien.

Chan Li enjoyed 25% revenue growth last year, an achievement that Lien attributes partly to his company's competitive pricing. "Our machines cost as little as one-third as much as foreign-made counterparts, " he says.

The company is preparing to expand sales to Eastern Europe and the U.S. this year to meet an expected surge in demand in those markets.


Multifunctional Solutions

With more than four decades of manufacturing experience, Mechanical Industry Co., Ltd. Specializes in envelope-making machines and automated square-bottom-bag-making machines.

The firm's R&D department develops innovative products with advanced functions. "We have spared no efforts to meet the demands of our customers for multifunctional machines to save production costs, " says Chou Ching-shun, export manager of the company.

The company currently exports 60% of its output, mainly to Southeast Asia and mainland China. The company says its sales to mainland China have been increasing steadily over the past few years because of the rapid economic development there.

Despite strong growth in the mainland, the firm posted modest growth of 5% in sales last year, which Chou attributes to the sagging world economy.

Still, the company is confident that increased domestic demand will help push revenue higher this year. "Recently the government here has moved aggressively to restrict the use of plastic bags, " says Chou. "I believe this will create new demand for paper bags."

Chou says domestic paper-bag manufacturers generally use imported machines, especially for square-bottom bags, because of the insufficient supply of domestically made models. "We are the only producer of automated square-bottom-bag-making machines in Taiwan, " says Chou.

The company's automated square-bottom-bag-making machine is equipped with automatic feeding, forming, folding, receiving, and counting systems. The machine can be used with varnished paper.

Chou's says it will soon introduce a high-performance automated square-bottom-bag-making machine. "The new machine will have printing equipment to allow all production processes to be completed in a single cycle, " Chou says. "When the new machine comes out in the middle of this year, it will help customers reduce production costs since they will no longer have to buy peripheral equipment for making square-bottom bags."