R&D alliance to upgrade Taiwan's PTW Line

Aided by local Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) and Plastics Industry Development Center (PIDC), a group of makers of assembled powered two-wheelers (PTWs) and parts in southern Taiwan recently signed an agreement to form the “Motorcycle Parts Industry Value-added R&D Alliance.” Members in the R&D alliance include Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp. (plastic material supplier and plastic-inject manufacturer), Tong Yah Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (PTW electronic gauges), Gloria Material Technology Corp. (manufacture of special alloy materials), Nanopolymer Composites Corp. (plastic fuel tank), and Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co. (assembled PTWs). Facing fierce price-cutting competition from rivals in Mainland China and other low-cost nations in Southeast Asia, MIRDC said, most local PTW and parts makers are suffering increasingly thin margins and forced to upgrade their operations to survive. (June 27, 2008)