Taipei, Aug. 21, 2008 (CENS)--Keyarrow (Taiwan) Co., one of Taiwan`s leading manufacturers of peripheral equipment for machine tools, has recently resolved to speed up deployment across the Taiwan Strait.

Founded 25 years ago, Keyarrow specializes in the development and production of slideway covers and chip conveyors. The company claims it is Taiwan`s largest manufacturer of slideway covers with an 80% market share.

The company says it will begin mass production in its Jiahsin and Kunming plants in mainland China by the end of this year. Its under-construction new plant located in Taichung Precision Machinery Industrial Park will be inaugurated in the beginning of next year.

The company registered NT$1 billion (US$31.25 million at US$1:NT$32) in sales last year, up 20% from the year earlier. A 30% year-on-year sales growth is expected this year. With the inauguration of the three plants across the Taiwan Strait, the company will challenge NT$2 billion (US$62.5 million) in combined sales in 2010.

Keyarrow president C.H. Wang said his company has adopted a strategy to build production sites close to customers. Seeing the promising prospects of mainland China`s machine-tool industry, over the past several years the company has invested US$10 million in the mainland.

The company says after the mainland facilities are completed, one-third of their total output will be shipped back to Taiwan to facilitate the need of domestic machine-tool manufacturers, one-third supplied to mainland buyers, with the remaining one-third for exports.

Wang predicted domestic machine-tool industry will see a slowdown in the second half of this year as some leading manufacturers, including Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co. and Yeong Chin Machine Industries Co. have been struggling to boost production efficiency. Keyarrow boasts it is the only Taiwanese firm of peripheral equipment for machine tools to received consulting from a Japanese veteran manufacturer.

Wang said his company began entering into the mainland market in 2004. With years of development, Keyarrow has become one of mainland`s leading brands in this filed. Keyarrow`s major customers in the mainland include Dalian Machine Tools Co. and Shenyang Machine Tools Co.

(by Ben Shen)