Flight out of country shrinks local textile industry

16 Aug '05

3 min read

With a move to switch operations to Vietnam, Taiwan's textile industry saw production facilities shrink to a total of 1.96 million spindles last year and the number of spindles in real operation hitting a 20-year low of 1.6 million units, according to industry sources.

To deal with the steep competition in the world market, Taiwan's leading textile makers have in recent years actively moved their operations overseas to cut manufacturing cost. Other than China, Vietnam has recently become their favorite production base.

In 2004 Chung Shing Textile Co. closed the operations of its two plants in Taiwan and moved the facilities to Vietnam. As a result, the number of the company's spindles in Vietnam has expanded to 110,000, and the firm maintained only a trading department in Taiwan as well as 10,000 spindles operated by its affiliated plant here.

Today the affiliated plant produces merely underwear and some garments for exports, Chung Shing recently decided to close its trading department on the island as well.

Still having some 300,000 spindles in Taiwan, Far Eastern Textile Ltd. has recently scaled down its production capacity here and moved the spinning center to the mainland.

Tainan Enterprise Co. has beefed up its operations in Vietnam and its spinning facilities there have increased to 290,000 spindles while those in Taiwan have declined to 170,000 spindles.

A few years ago, Formosa Chemical & Fiber Corp. set up a textile industrial zone in Vietnam and attracted many Taiwanese textile makers to move into the zone.

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