Auto electronics sector booming

Electronics firms have been aggressively pushing their product lineups in an attempt to increase their share of the growing automotive electronics market.

"Most electronics firms hope to leverage their advantages in consumer electronics to tap into the auto electronics segment," said Katty Hung (洪美金), senior account manager of marketing and sales at Lite-On Automotive Corp (敦揚科技).

Hung spoke to the Taipei Times at the 2006 AutoTronics Taipei show, Asia's first auto electronics exposition, which concludes at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I today.

According to Boston-based consulting firm Strategy Analytics, the global auto electronics market is poised to grow to US$163.46 billion in 2008, from US$134.13 billion last year.

The lucrative auto electronics business has attracted significant interest from technology heavyweights such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), BenQ Corp (明基) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦).

Hon Hai is the nation's largest electronics company by sales and also supplies game consoles and mobile phones to customers such as Sony Corp and Motorola Inc. Asustek is the world's largest motherboard maker and also produces personal computers for Sony and Apple Computer Inc. BenQ is the nation's largest handset maker, while Quanta is the world's biggest notebook computer manufacturer.

For motherboard maker Universal Scientific Industry Co (環隆電器), global positioning systems (GPS) will be the company's niche in the emerging auto electronics industry.

"GPS solutions will be our major focus for the next five years," said Eric Ho (何孟宇), head of the company's in-car "infotainment" system business unit.

Having initiated research into GPS products three years ago, the company has been fine-tuning its software to offer drivers a user-friendly interface, and expects initial orders to pour in during the second half of the year.

China Motor Corp (中華汽車), the nation's No. 2 automaker, is set to deploy Universal Scientific's navigation solutions in selected Mitsubishi models in the fourth quarter, Ho said.

Ho added that Universal Scientific intends to market these products to tier-one suppliers in the US and Europe from next year.

"Our target is to boost the revenue contribution of automotive products from the current 4 percent to 10 percent within the next three years. But we have a good chance of achieving that target next year," he said.

Lite-On Automotive, meanwhile, is banking on tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).

As the US has mandated that all vehicles sold after September next year must have TPMS, this is a big growth opportunity, Hung said.

With parent company Lite-On Technology Corp's (光寶科技)'s Guangzhou facilities set to support auto electronics production in the fourth quarter, Lite-On Automotive will be able to meet its clients' demands by churning out products in large volumes, she added.

Meanwhile, Everlight Electronics Corp (億光電子), a maker of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is switching its focus from the mobile phone segment to the auto electronics market.

"This is an inevitable trend for us as business prospects in auto electronics are just too tempting," said Bob Liu (劉權毅), product specialist at Everlight.

LEDs are now commonly used in vehicle dashboards and tail lights. Other applications for LEDs include front-turning signals, reading lamps, liquid-crystal-display screens and anything else that emits light in cars, he added.