The Taipei Cycle show and the Taipei International Sporting Goods Show (TaiSPO) opened at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1 and 2 yesterday, making the exhibitions the first to physically welcome visitors from around the world after Taiwan reopened its borders in October last year.
About 4,000 foreign visitors from more than 90 countries registered in advance to attend the joint fair, which is to include on-site events running through Saturday and digital shows continuing until April 7, the organizer said in a statement yesterday.
The Taipei Cycle and TaiSPO have attracted 1,023 companies, which showcase their products at 3,850 booths, making it the largest cycling and sports fitness industry event in Asia, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said in the statement.
Photo: CNA
The fair also boasts the highest-density business platform for the global high-end bicycle and sports fitness supply chain, TAITRA said, adding that it expects it to result in substantial business opportunities for local firms.
With the launch of several special exhibitions at which products are categorized by usage purpose, it is expected to assist foreign companies to conveniently source products that meet their requirements and the importing countries’ regulations, it added.
“Taiwan is an important center for the production and research and development of bicycles and fitness products. Last year, the output value of bicycles exceeded NT$200 billion [US$6.55 billion], a substantial increase of 23 percent from the previous year, and ranked second in the world,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said at the event’s opening ceremony.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
In addition, Taiwan exported more than 1 million electric bicycles last year, Tsai said.
“Taiwan’s fitness equipment, sportswear, protective gear, ball equipment and other sporting goods are also internationally renowned, showing that Taiwan has become a reliable supply chain partner for the global sporting goods industry,” she added.
The annual bicycle industry fair features a variety of tires, seats, frames, lights, breaks, derailleurs, bicycles and electric bikes. Top brands in the industry, such as Merida Industry Co (美利達) and Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) as well as chain maker KMC (Kuei Meng) International Inc (桂盟國際), Japanese bicycle parts maker Shimano Inc and Chicago-based component supplier SRAM Corp, are among the participants this year, the organizer said.
Fitness equipment manufacturers Johnson Health Technology Co (喬山健康科技) and Dyaco International Inc (岱宇國際), two TaiSPO veterans, are also participating in this year’s event, TAITRA said.
However, many exhibitors are attending for the first time, with about 15 percent of firms at Taipei Cycle and 25 percent at TaiSPO being debutants, including leading rubber conveyor belts maker Hsin Yung Chien Co (鑫永銓) and power and thermal management solutions provider Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the organizer said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
RSS