About TASI --- Taiwan Association of Stationery Industries

Trend & Background

TAIWAN'S STATIONERY MANUFACTURERS-Small Scale, huge success

Taiwanese manufacturers have worked long and hard to make stationery manufacturing the little industry that could. No one in the world of stationery will deny that Taiwan has now become a major player in the global market because of its superb quality products at remarkably affordable prices.

What is perhaps most surprising to note is that Taiwan's huge successes have been achieved by such small-scale enterprises. Of the several hundred stationery manufacturers on the island, only 20 employ over 200 people. These small companies have worked hard to carve out a niche in the international marketplace in the face of rising labor costs and stiff foreign competition.

Many of them have moved their labor-intensive operations offshore in order to remain competitive. Automation and CAD/CAM capabilities are becoming more and more widespread, meaning reduced labor costs and high product quality. Many industry leaders emphasize innovation in product and packaging design as another important key to success. Others are expanding their product lines.

The United States was the largest single importer of Taiwan-produced stationery products in 1997, buying as estimated 33% of all stationery goods exported from Taiwan. Japan, Hong Kong and Europe followed closely behind. Eastern Europe, Mainland China and India are markets poised for huge expansion in the near future.

Taiwan stationery exports in 1997 totaled US$ 702.2 million, down 1.4% from the previous year. Major export categories were writing instruments, paper products, plastic stationery, metal stationery, and inks. Writing instruments by far dominated the field. This category continues to be the item with the highest growth rate, up 4% from 1996 to US$331.1 million. Writing instruments now account for 47% of the value of all production in the stationery industry. Paper products followed writing instruments in 1997, with 30% of stationery exports, a total value of US$213.4 million. Plastic stationery supplies ranked third at US$132.1 million.

Despite the healthy growth in recent years and the enormous potential still to be explored, stationery manufacturing in Taiwan has some important challenges to overcome. One is a lack of quality domestic support industries. For example, vital components such as nibs for fountain pens are not available domestically at the high level of quality needed. The only current alternative is to import these high-quality components from Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Because nibs account for a substantial part of the cost of manufacturing, Taiwanese pen manufacturers are eager to develop a domestic alternative to imports. Another pressing challenge for Taiwanese manufacturers is to establish successful brand names. The vast majority of local manufacturers still rely heavily on OEM and ODM orders.

 

2023 台北國際創意文具展/2022.06.30~2023.07.03