Atotech Taiwan Ltd.(France)
When the 1997 Asian financial crisis spread from Thailand to other Asian countries, many leading international firms preparing to invest in Asia put their plans on hold and adopted a wait-and-see attitude. In contrast, Atotech-a member of France's Total Group-actually decided to increase its stake in Asia.
At that time, having assessed Taiwan for several years and undeterred by the financial crisis, Atotech proceeded to convince manager Huang Sheng-lang, who had been working in China for many years, to take the helm in Taiwan. As a result, Atotech formally established a Taiwan subsidiary in 1997. As a major international supplier of chemical raw materials, process technology, and specialized equipment, Atotech has always devoted greater attention to its global deployment. Seeking to maximize the group's profits, Atotech's selection of this moment to invest in Taiwan turned out to be a very sound strategic decision.
Taiwan's information and electronics industry has developed rapidly from the OEM stage during the 1980s, and the country is now the proud possessor of an information industry empire. In addition, the industry has broken out of its low-cost manufacturing niche and moved into upstream sectors, such as by embracing ODM services. Having watched the steady ascendance of Taiwan's manufacturers, and aware of Taiwan's leading market share in such product categories as monitors and motherboards, the Atotech Group saw that Taiwan was gradually transforming into an Asia- Pacific electronics parts and components supply chain center. Atotech consequently realized that strengthening its presence in Taiwan was an urgent task if it hoped to enter Taiwanese manufacturers' supply chains and share the fruit of Taiwan's industrial growth.
Nevertheless , while Taiwan's electronics industry continues to grow, China is increasing it s dominance over the world's mid- and low- end markets, and has recruited many of Taiwan's top managers. Huang Sheng-lang, having moved to Hong Kong and China already 27 years ago after having worked in environmental engineering for many years, has borne witness to the rapid growth of China's market throughout the reform period and during today's time of burgeoning investment by transnational firms. While in China, Huang gained a deep understanding of Chun's industrial ecology and channels. Because of his keen grasp of the industrial division of labor across the Taiwan Strait, Huang was the perfect candidate to help the Atotech Group establish a subsidiary in Taiwan.
Huang Sheng-lang's decision to give up his long-term cultivation of the Greater China market and return to his homeland was not motivated by an invitation to "trade a large market for a smaller market," but rather by his hope to achieve success through "strategic reliance on industry clusters." Huang was also willing to direct his long-term attention to investing in Taiwan because the Atotech Group shared his awareness of Taiwan's strategic value.
"I told the company that I was standing on a gold mine, but I wasn't interested in just taking the gold and getting out. What I wanted was to establish close relationships with partners including the world's best wafer fabs, IC packaging plants, and printed circuit board manufacturers, and achieve investment success through these partnerships," said Atotech Taiwan's Technology Director & General Manager Huang Sheng-lang, "Because these are the key factors differentiating Taiwan from other overseas manufacturing markets."
Not long after Huang established an Atotech subsidiary in Taiwan, this chemical technology firm had spread into four major industries, Atotech Taiwan Ltd. namely general metal finishing (GMF), circuit boards (PCB), electronics materials (EM), and wafer fab and chip packaging.
Although Huang Sheng-lang has not been at the helm of Atotech for very long, he already has many outstanding achievements under his belt. For instance, Atotech produced and sold 6,000 tons of raw materials in 2000, prompting its parent company to increase Atotech's production capacity, and the company established a production facility in the Guanyin Industrial Park, Taoyuan County. This, however, was only the beginning.
As Atotech steadily increased its production capacity, it also developed various new processes, automated equipment, consumable materials, and chemical products. As a result, in addition to its three major R&D centers in Germany, the US, and Japan, in 2004 the group decided to establish the world-class "Advanced Technology Center" (ATC) in Guanyin Industrial Park.
"Thanks to Atotech's professionalism and tight up- and downstream integration, Taiwan's electronics clusters have been able to take their engineering technology and mass production experience to an even higher level," said Huang. Every year Huang's sales reports elicit pleasant astonishment at the parent company, confirming Taiwan's status as one of the world's most efficient production sites.
According to Huang Sheng-lang's analysis, Atotech's ability to span wet processes in the IC, PCB, and GMF industries can be attributed to the tight linkage between its chemical, consumable, automated continuous equipment, and environmental protection technology. Thanks to Taiwan's relatively small size and dense industry clusters, as well as the company's strong technical and service capabilities, "Atotech is able to meet the needs of customers in the electronics industry at all times, and has developed all-round, one-stop services. This is how we have managed to take 'localization' to such an extreme."
Attentive to the needs of manufacturers in southern Taiwan, in 2008 Atotech established its second "Advanced Technology Center" in Taiwan at the Gangshan South Environmental Technology Park in Kaohsiung County. This ATC primarily provides advanced surface treatment technologies and serves the auto and screw manufacturing industries.
Little screws form the basis of a big industry. Taiwan is one of the world's three leading screw manufacturers, and its screws are used in information and communications products, building construction, precision instruments, wind generating equipment, and the aerospace products. Atotech is helping Taiwan's screw manufacturers to use high- end chemical surface treatment to produce screws that are resistant to high pressure and corrosion. These screws are used in many mid- and high-end applications, and last more than six times longer than conventional screws.
"Our goal in establishing the Kaohsiung ATC is to help screw manufacturers to move to a higher level." According to Huang's analysis, screws and fasteners used in auto products have the highest technological threshold, and fetch unit prices many times higher than those of ordinary products. They must also be very abrasion- and corrosion-resistant, and must fasten securely, especially when used in engine and brake parts where safety is a major concern. According to Huang, "The establishment of the ATC in Kaohsiung County was an important milestone for Atotech and Taiwan's auto, screw, and electronics industries."
In response to the persistent urgings of many semiconductor manufacturers, Atotech currently plans to invest more than NT$400 million in the establishment of a third ATC in Taiwan during the next three years. This facility will engage in semiconductor process technology R&D, and meet the long-term supply chain needs of semiconductor customers and the precision electronics and packaging industries. The plant ATC is expected to open by the end of 2012.
With a European background, Atotech is pursuing the sustainable development of environmental technology meeting the highest standards. Apart from improving existing processes, the company is also introducing a series of new green environmental protection technologies. Although environmental laws and regulations differ in various localities, Huang Sheng-lang explained, Atotech's parent company is dedicated to bringing the best possible environmental protection measures to every market. "Subsidiaries will not employ low-standard environmental measures just because of certain area has lax environmental protection laws and regulations," Huang emphasized.
When he makes his routine visits to Atotech's facilities, Huang always reminds plant staff to ensure that every operating step is up to the highest standards, "because this is the basis for sustainable development." The company believes that only by reducing wastewater and waste to the lowest possible level, can it help customers improve their green processes, adopt clean production technologies, and enhance their industrial waste reduction and pollution control measures. Atotech can thus rely on its own environmental protection achievements to persuade others to upgrade their environmental standards. Furthermore, General Manager Huang Shenglang personally leads employees in numerous environmental activities, including tree-planting, beach and forest clean-ups, water resource protection projects and energy conservation/carbon reduction activities. He is a believer in setting a good example and combining learning with fun. As a result, Atotech is a model of corporate sustainability.
Huang continued to explain how Atotech has continued to acquire the newest German environmental production technologies as it complies with the EU's full-scale implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directives. Atotech is using these technologies to help Taiwan's electronics parts industry to achieve the goal of clean production. Apart from the three environmental protection policy "R"s-namely Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, Atotech is also pursuing a fourth R-Research-and is constantly developing and promoting new environmental protection technologies that can be used in production of green products.
Huang is deter mi ned to secu re a sust ai nable position i n the Taiwanese market, and plans to devote more than 5% of Atotech Taiwan'stotal earnings to R&D in each of the next few years.
Atotech Taiwan is relying on the abundant resources od its parentcompany to serve electronics clusters in Taiwan, meet the needs of the high-end semiconductor and PCB industries, and also help traditional manufacturers to upgrade themselves, such as by providing higher-grade fasteners to the auto industry. Its success in these areas proves that Atotech possesses knowledge-intensive, resource-intensive, customer-intensive, and technology-intensive advantages. It is using its integration ability and operating efficiency to write the book on how foreign firms can achieve sustainability in Taiwan, while finding new opportunities for greater economic efficiency in supply chains.
Source: Department of Investment Services, MOEA