About 200 Taiwanese companies, including e-paper display maker SiPix Technology Inc (達意科技), launched an industrial association yesterday known as the E-Reading Industry Promotion Alliance (電子閱讀產業推動聯盟) to join forces in developing an e-reader ecosystem and to benefit from rapidly growing demand for the device.
SiPix, an affiliate of the nation’s top panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), is one of a few companies capable of supplying e-paper displays globally.
The world’s biggest e-paper display maker, Hsinchu-based Prime View International Co (元太科技), has yet to join the alliance.
The alliance hopes to integrate government and corporate resources to help local firms seize future business opportunities and turn the e-reader sector into the next big thing.
“We should put competition aside. What we need to do now is build a better supply chain in Taiwan to make e-readers more affordable for the public,” said Simon Huang (黃杉榕), vice director-general of the alliance.
“Now the company’s priority is to expand our market share,” Huang said.
Huang is also a vice president of Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s No. 3 notebook computer maker.
Acer has put together a team to study the e-reader business, but it has no timetable for launching its own product, Huang said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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