Shyam Sujan, Sectary General of India’s Electric Lamp & Component Manufacturers’ Association (ELCOMA), hopes that compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) will replace incandescent lamps in India in three to four years under the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism carbon credit scheme. The brisk economic growth of the past few years has given an enormous boost to India’s lighting market, w...

In recent years, the Beijing authority announced policies unfavorable to the so-called traditional export-driven industries, having also impacted heavily most of the Taiwanese-run companies set up to take advantage of China’s exporter-friendly environment 20 or 30 years ago. The “cut in export tax rebate,” “two taxes in one,” “labor contract act,” “wages to double in 10 years,” and “old c...

Besides the often reported financial woes besetting Italy, the largest powered two-wheeler (PTW) market in Europe has also been suffering steadily dropping sales that are threatening its long-established PTW industry, one that may have given the world the iconic Vespa and blueprints for the show-stopping Ducati, with enough gravity to motivate many operators and trade associations to devise way...

Makers of gardening tools along with accessories generate export revenue of around US$95 million on average yearly help to drive hand tool exports in Taiwan. Besides being popular with professionals and DIY gardeners in the U.S. and Europe, and despite global economic uncertainty that have occasionally sapped demand for gardening tools, such products have sold comparatively well in global mar...

At the 2012 Taipei Int'l Auto Parts & Accessories Show (Taipei AMPA) and Taipei International Automobile Electronics Show (AutoTronics Taipei), held April 11-14 in Taipei and the largest automotive parts show in Asia, global visitors generally expect and do find a host of suppliers capable of meeting buyers’ various demands, and it wasn’t an exception this year as over 1,000 exhibitors were on ha...

Amid an uncertain global economy, weakened by the still limping peripheral economies in the EU and relatively high unemployment, slow housing starts in the U.S., most Taiwanese bathroom fitting makers have struggled with flat growths over the past few years. While the industry is not likely to turn around for many years, many undaunted operators are using different strategies, depending on core ...

After undergoing transition in the late 1990s, the Taiwan furniture industry has awakened to a strategy taken for granted in the West and often practiced with considerable success, with an increasing number of companies learning the art of and investing in branding. This new trend started at the beginning of the 21st century and is marked by two mainstream styles—innovation and craftsmanship...

Jan W. Denneman, president of the Global Lighting Association (GLA) and chairman of the Zhaga Consortium, as well as a VP with Philips Lighting, announced at the opening ceremony of the Taiwan International Lighting Show 2012, which took place on March 13-16, that the Global Lighting Forum (GLF) had changed its name to the Global Lighting Association (GLA) and that the Zhaga Consortium would prod...

Bryan Douglas, chief executive officer of Lighting Council Australia, stresses that Australia needs standards to weed out underperforming LED lighting products from the Australian market. Standards are needed, he believes, to boost Australian consumer confidence in the nascent, but quickly evolving, LED lighting technology. He visited Taiwan for the first time to attend the annual meeting...

The European Union’s (EU) powered two-wheeler (PTW) market in 2011 saw the worst performance of the decade, with new-PTW registrations falling by another 9.5%, or about 170,000 units, to only 1.7 million units sold, according to statistics released by the ACEM (Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers in Europe). At the yearly industry meeting held late January 2012 in Brussels, ACEM's presi...