Taiwanese Electronics Manufacturers Seize Opportunities in European Smart Technologies

Over the past decade or so, the global deployment of Taiwanese businessmen has spread across European countries, and investments in many industries in the EU have continued to increase. According to the latest EU-Taiwan Bilateral Relations Report published by the European Economic and Trade Office, the investment stock of the 27 EU member states in Taiwan reached 45 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2019, accounting for a quarter of all foreign investment. Taiwan's investment in the EU is also becoming more active. The main investment fields are finance and insurance, manufacturing, wholesale and retail. The proportion of the amount was 89.1%, 9.4% and 1.2% respectively.
Many heavyweight Taiwanese ICT manufacturers are present in the manufacturing sector of the EU. Companies include Advantech, a global leader in intelligent systems for Internet of Things, Delta Electronics, which specializes in power supply and transformer systems, Everlight, a LED manufacturer, and medical equipment manufacturer Apex Medical, have all achieved certain results in the European market.

Delta Electronics has been in Europe for 30 years

"Although the European market currently accounts for a small percentage of Delta's revenue, it means that there is still a lot of room for growth in the future.", said Yancey Hai, Chairman of Delta Electronics, when sharing the group's experience in the European market in the "EU Investment Forum" . It was pointed out that the EU has a population of approximately 450 million and is an economy where people and capital can circulate freely. Business opportunities are promising. Therefore, Delta actively invests and expands in the market.
When talking about deployment strategy, Yancey Hai emphasized that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are an important means to accelerate Delta's deployment in Europe. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought operating difficulties to many European companies, and it is an critical timing for Taiwanese companies to invest in the EU. Although it is the time to enter the EU, companies must follow the strategic value of mergers and acquisitions and conduct in-depth assessments of technologies and talents before investing.
Looking at the history of Delta's investment in Europe, it is now 30 years in the making. Delta's Dutch headquarters in the European, African and Middle East (EMEA) market has been upgraded to a green building in 2017, saving 45% pf energy per year. It has become a demonstration site for Delta to expand its green energy-saving solutions. Presently, various products of Delta have been widely adopted in Europe. For example, Delta's Modulon DPH series uninterruptible power system has been successfully deployed in the European telecommunications market, including many large telecommunications service providers in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. This system is designed to solve the challenge of high power consumption in the data centers faced by European telecommunication companies.
In addition, Delta is also working closely with European manufacturers to develop more innovative solutions to seize the market. For example, in early 2020, Delta announced that it will cooperate with British electric vehicle drivetrain supplier GKN Automotive to develop a new generation of three-inone eDrive electric power system. The system has an output power ranging from 80 kW to 155 kW. This three-in-one system integrates Delta's motor driver with GKN Automotive's motor and gearbox system, reducing the weight and size of the system, and effectively simplify the assembly process and improve quality. Delta and GKN Automotive specialize in power electronic products and electric drive systems respectively. The cooperation between the two is expected to greatly enhance technical capabilities and shorten the lead time to market.

Advantech Expands Its Present with European Service Center

To complete its present in the European market, Advantech set up a European service center in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The service center not only uses Advantech's software, hardware and cloud platform solutions, but also introduces various IoT applications, becoming a demonstration site for Advantech's European Industry 4.0 solution. The service center has established Advantech position as a true IoT solution provider in Europe.
Advantech pointed out that its European service center utilizes the latest IoT technologies, ranging from building automation, smart meeting rooms, smart reception desks, temperature and lighting control, environmental energy monitoring and control, to smart monitoring management iSurveillance and smart ordering iLunch for company colleagues and VIPs. On the assembly line, the intelligent manufacturing execution system (iCTOS MES) is also deployed throughout the entire process to streamline the production line operation from layout to pre-configuration, assembly, integration and quality control. In addition, am Industry 4.0 War Room was set up in the center to allow all visiting VIPs to experience firsthand how Advantech can monitor on-site conditions in real time to help Advantech speed up the improvement cycle, and support production more flexibly to meet changing needs.
Advantech pointed out that Advantech has a 27-year history in Europe and has established Advantech's European foundation with the One Europe strategy since 2010, and in 2013, it implemented the Country-Lead business strategy to carry out localization in Europe.In respond to Advantech's organizational strategy for the Internet of Things, in 2014, it added the Sector-Lead element to focus on the market needs of vertical market. In 2018, Advantech has converged various application fields to promote the brand and grow in the local market, strengthening Advantech's leading position in the European IoT market.
In order to deepen its present in the European regional market and achieve the growth target of 350 million euros in revenue by 2025, Advantech added new offices in Sweden and Barcelona in 2017, and will establish local public relations and human resources functions to strengthen cooperation with local public and private sectors. As of today, Advantech has 14 offices and hundreds of local employees in 10 countries in Europe.

Everlight Devotes in the European Market and Seizes Business Opportunities in Smart Lighting

Let's take a look at the deployment of the major LED manufacturer Everlight in Europe. In the past 10 years, Everlight has been quite active in Europe, and there have been many cases of application. For example, in November 2011, Everlight's LED plant lighting technology received orders from European agricultural equipment customers. In 2013, in order to continue to expand in the European market, Everlight spent about NT$400 million to acquire 100% of the shares of a German lighting company, thereby opened up European distribution channels and entered into the private label market.
In recent years, Everlight focuses strongly on smart city business opportunities. At the EU Investment Forum, Hsi-Chuan Hsu, Sr. Director of Everlight Intelligence Technology, a subsidiary of Everlight, said that European countries are actively developing smart cities, including energy, transportation, health care, safety monitoring, education and other fields. Therefore, Everlight actively invests in high-efficiency and innovative technologies to successfully enter the European smart lighting market. Hsu recommended that other Taiwan manufacturers enter the European market, and they can also seek innovative applications related to smart cities and cooperate with Everlight to integrate products and grow together.
From the perspective of the present of Taiwan's technology industry in Europe, as one of the world's most important economies, Europe is definitely an important market that Taiwan's technology industry cannot ignore. Using innovative technologies and products to create application sites for demonstration in Europe is one of the important strategies for Taiwanese technology companies to successfully enter the market. In addition, mergers and acquisitions strategies, talent cultivation, and industrial cooperation are also important keys for Taiwanese businesses entering Europe.