TFTA 2017 Annual Member Assembly & Election of New Directors/Supervisors---- Congrats! Jimmy Chang Becomes New TFTA Chairman

by Dean Tseng, Fastener World

Domestic and overseas economic performance was in an uptick in 2017 when Taiwan’s GDP was adjusted upwards from the original 1% to nearly 2.5%. With economic recovery at the background, Taiwanese fastener companies grabbed their chances to tap into the U.S. and Europe where purchase sentiment turned strong, as well as China and Southeast Asia where infrastructure construction was prevalent. Under the leadership of former chairman Bill Chen and former vice chairman Jimmy Chang, TFTA members not only actively visited fastener companies in Thailand, Germany and Japan, but also teamed up and attended overseas major exhibitions in 2017. Despite the challenge from steel price increase and personnel costs, they were able to come out with rigid and stable sales performance. On December 8, 2017, TFTA held an annual member assembly and election of new directors/supervisors at Silks Place Tainan. Jimmy Chang, who had been assisting in association affairs for as long as a year as vice chairman, took over Bill Chen’s position and became the chairman for 2018, surrounded by anticipating members and their round of applause.

Besides this annual assembly, Fastener World will also interview Jimmy Chang, and his plans and objectives for the association in 2018 will be exclusively included in our upcoming publication.

The annual assembly first reported the member scale of the association for the past year, and the critical activities held within the year. So far the association has grown into 315 member companies. This time the assembly attracted over 200 member companies.

List of new elected chairman, vice chairman, chapter presidents and directors/supervisors

New chairman    Jimmy Chang (Special Rivets Corp.)

Vice Chairman    Josh Chen (Yung King Industries)

Managing supervisor    Kern-Hsiung Huang (Feng Yi Steel)   

Managing Director      Sandy Yu(Chong Cheng Fastener); Johnny Chen (Maw Yow Industrial); Alex Wu (Ching Chan Optical)

Northern Chapter President   Cindy Wang (Keep Fastener)

Central Chapter President     Andy Wang (Sun Through Industrial)

Directors

Supervisors

Consultants

Hong Kong & U.S. Fastener Associations’ Reports on Latest Market Trends

Hong Kong Screw & Fastener Council (HKSFC) ChairwomanWu-Wai Yee explained to TFTA members the development trend of Hong Kong fastener industry with her focus on two main topics: Coopetition and Industry 4.0. She used the Greater Bay Area in Hong Kong as an example to suggest that Hong Kong’s fastener company should not only upgrade but also catch up with the world by adopting coopetition instead of sticking to traditional competing relationship. She redefined rivals as frenemy in a bilateral relationship, and said one has to seek new collaboration from mutual differences. Additionally, Hong Kong’s fastener industry is small but delicate, and is dedicated to small batch and customized production. Therefore, it has to introduce Industry 4.0 to put production data on clouds and satisfy customers’ needs through customized service such as inventory search.

National Fastener Distributors Association Chairman Kevin Miller reported the market trend of the U.S. during the first 9 months of 2017. The U.S. economy performed quite well in this period and GDP grew 2%. The accelerating growth of the American manufacturing industry (up by 0.7%) has sped up the production growth of industrial sector (up by 0.5%). As such, Kevin said the economic expansion provides NFDA members the opportunity to grow in many industries as they enter 2018. The construction market is expected to witness a growth trend, and western and central western America will be the main propeller for this growth. Furthermore, the main U.S. economic indicators all point to accelerated growth of the American industrial production in early 2018. Purchasing Manager’s Index has exceeded the peak in early 2017, which signifies that the accelerated growth of U.S. economy may continue through mid-2018.