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News Release from: Assembleon
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 May 2004
Assembleon's long-term strategy focuses
on China
China is a key element of Assembleon's long-term global business strategy; sales in Asia grew to 40% of total global sales, up from just over 30% in 2002, with China representing 30%.
At Nepcon Shanghai 2004, Cor Scholten, Assembleon's chief executive officer, confirmed that Asia, and in particular, China, is a key element of the company's long-term global business strategy In 2003, sales in Asia grew to 40% of Assembleon's total global sales, up from just over 30% in 2002, with China representing 30% of this growth
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 9 Jan 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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As a direct result of the company's aggressive drive to increase market share in this fast-paced and rapidly expanding market, Assembleon expects China to represent 70% of total Asia sales in 2004.
"We recognised China as a growing force in the global market several years ago and moved quickly to position ourselves to serve not only the large multinational original design manufacturers (ODMs) and electronics manufacturing service (EMS) companies that were moving their operations into China, but also the large number of local Chinese enterprises that were becoming increasingly sophisticated and challenging the foreign-owned multinationals," commented Scholten.
"Unlike many other vendors, Assembleon does not view China simply as a location for low-cost manufacturing.
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Instead, we firmly believe that China is one of the key market and technology drivers in the world.
No longer is China just looking at its export markets, but domestic sales are booming and helping to drive new technology around the world.
For example, in the mobile phone sector, colour displays are virtually a standard in China, but this still isn't the case in the rest of the world.
Also, many of the domestic brands, such as Bird, Eastcom, and TCL, are outselling multinational brands by swiftly incorporating new functionality as soon as it becomes available." Recognising the potential of the China market has been key to Assembleon's global success.
"Our China strategy is proving to be successful," continued Scholten.
"Today, with the help of our partner Autron Corp, we have an unrivalled presence in China, with an active presence in Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Dongguan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, and Xian.
This ensures that our customers, no matter where they are, have access to highly trained, and more importantly vastly experienced, sales and support personnel that can assist them as they forge ahead with their innovative designs." In addition to its well-executed distribution policy, Assembleon has continued its own direct commitment to China, and expects to more than quadruple its staff headcount by the end of 2004.
The additional staff will be deployed in the new locations around the country and in a new training and demonstration centre expected to open in Shanghai before the end of the year.
Together, these new facilities will provide a solid base to support customers in all aspects of their process development, machine configuration, and quality assurance.
Assembleon's aggressive drive to increase market share and sales in 2004 is focused upon a number of key industry segments: consumer electronics, including PC motherboards; mobile phones; LCD monitors; DVD/EVD players; telecommunications equipment, including PBXs and trunking systems; and the increasingly important automotive electronics and GPS segments.
"Further, Assembleon's emphasis on accuracy and quality, not just volume, means that we are also penetrating the commercial aerospace/aeronautics sector, which is showing remarkable growth due in large part to the success of China's first space mission," continued Scholten.
"Although many of these sectors may initially appear to have different requirements, we are aware that, in fact, many of the challenges they face are similar.
For example, miniaturisation is driving many of our customers to deal with smaller and smaller components, down to 0201, and so they need us to ensure high placement stability.
Further, as the pace of change increases, they rely on us to help guide them through the entire process, not just the SMT section, essentially providing a highly skilled and knowledgeable one-stop service.
As Assembleon is part of Philips, we have in-depth expertise and knowledge.
We can utilise other Philips services, for example PhilipsCFT (Centre For Manufacturing Technology), to provide an unrivalled level of technological expertise for our customers in China.".
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