The Indian SMT market is slowly transforming as Taiwanese companies are gearing up to appoint their local distributors and agents in the country. Since the market is already dominated by leading Japanese, Korean and Chinese brands, Taiwanese companies are mainly focusing on value for money products, which are 20-25 per cent cheaper than their competitors. However, Taiwanese companies are not so well known in India and they need to work on brand image. To some extent, they have started doing so by adding more distributors in India.
By Sandhya Malhotra
Thursday, May 20, 2013: Appointing distributors
Taiwan based Evest Corporation, a leading medium speed SMT pick and place machine manufacturer, has recently appointed Delhi based Prosem Technology India as their distributor for the growing Indian market. Prosem will offer machines for SMT industry, LED industry, CCD camera module applications and other products from the Evest portfolio.
Cheaper than Japanese companies
Price is the key differentiator for Taiwanese companies. Alok Gupta, director, Prosem Technology India, says, “The Indian SMT market is largely dominated by Japanese companies like Panasonic, Juki, Fuji, etc. The number of Taiwanese SMT companies in India is still very low. But we are receiving good response and brand acceptability from small and medium companies.”
Prosem has already sold four pick and place machines of Evest in a short time. Another Taiwanese company Ambitec Corporation is also offering its stencil printer through Prosem.
Value for money
Leaptech Corporation has distributorship of three Taiwanese companies—Tangteck Equipment Inc, National Solbot Electronics Co Ltd, and Founton Industrial Ltd. Suresh Nair, director, Leaptech Corporation, says, “Presently, we have only a few Taiwanese companies in the Indian SMT market and they offer very little competition to other brands. But Taiwanese SMT machines are value for money for entry level customers.”
“In terms of business ethics and work culture, Taiwanese companies are much more professional than their Chinese and Korean counterparts,” adds Nair.
Industry reaction
Commenting on the entry of Taiwanese companies in India, L Sampath, CEO, EMST Marketing, says, “It will take a long time for Taiwanese companies to compete with the reach and quality offered by the Japanese companies. Moreover, EMS and Indian manufacturers still have reservation in buying cheap machines.”
According to Sampath, at the time of buying SMT machines, customers don’t mind paying premium price and always go for trusted and branded machines. “Moreover, Taiwanese companies don’t have the service support system in place,” he adds.
Agreeing to Samapth, Prasad Gurjal, managing partner, Drive Technologies, a Pune based Indian manufacturer of reflow ovens, wave soldering and stencil printer, says, “Though the Taiwanese companies have started moving to India, but their presence will not make any dent on us. Taiwan based companies are not able to address customer support issues in India. Also, none of these companies have their direct presence in India,” he says.
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