Oct 15, 2001

For the fiscal year ending September 30, the German-based Siemens concern procured about 900 million Euros worth of products from Taiwan, therewith becoming the largest single European importer of this island nation, according to a statement from the company.

Siemens had orginally only projected procurement of only 500 million euros for this period, but the need to control costs in Germany, cut down on own production and reduce the labor force had spurred the company to increase its contracting with Taiwan manufacturers.

Of the 900 million Euros, notebook computers and PDAs (personal digital assistants ) contributed about 586 million euros to the shopping spree. Quanta Computer and Wistron are the German company`s notebook suppliers. Furthermore, Siemens is working with five Taiwan LCD manufacturers.

Due to the declining mobile phone demand, Siemens downsized its handset production operation and handed orders of 30 million mobile phones to Quanta and other Taiwan companies.

Siemens added that ist procurement from Taiwan will reach one billion euros per year for the next two years to come.