dc.description.abstract | Taiwan’s textured yarn industry is a traditional manufacturing industry, and it is in the upstream of the textile industry value chain. Textured yarn is a rather mature industry since it has been developing for more than 60 years (from 1950s). While pin type equipment is popular in earlier stage, nowadays friction type equipment (AFK-TWIN from Germany) is more common. At the same time, the end products are developed from Nylon to Polyester, from general products to nano products. Further, the sales scale is not only restricted in domestic sales but also export to overseas.
In 1987, Taiwan’s polyester textured industry became the world’s largest industry and Taiwan became the world’s biggest exporter for such products. Thus, Taiwan has the reputation of "Kingdom of Chemical Textile." However, as downstream garment and weaving companies moved to overseas, the printing and dyeing industries have lost huge textured yarn orders.
In terms of export business, Taiwanese suppliers are also facing big challenges. Textured industries in emerging countries, such as China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, with their governmental support, have been purchasing the latest equipment for mass production. With their low labor cost, it is easy for them to grab the market shares from Taiwanese suppliers.
Taiwanese textured yarn makers have changed their business strategies in recent years, focusing on research and development in functional products, improving manufacturing process and adding various nano elements, such as far infrared warmth, Jade-ice cool, Polypropylen Thermochemical, and other eco-friendly fibers. These efforts allow Taiwanese textured yarn industry to dominate the market gradually. We believe our competitive advantage is the ability to produce high quality, functional products rather than produce cheap, mass products.
This study shows that in the future, Taiwanese textured yarn makers should make good use of current products for transformation, developing various products with low volumes, focusing on new product development with differentiation, enhancing technology and production quality of service to downstream consumers, customizing products in order to consolidate the relationship with customers, establishing entry barriers for sustainable competitiveness in this industry. | en_US |