Haier Founder and CEO Visits Taiwan, Discusses Sourcing
By Paul Denlinger
Zhang Ruimin, founder and CEO of the Haier Group, the world's fifth largest maker of refrigerators and white goods, recently visited Taiwan to discuss component sourcing and strategic alliances with major Taiwan makers.
Haier Group is based in Qingdao (Tsingtao), China and has become one of the China's first companies to go global under its own brand name. It has a joint venture with an American partner Haier America, and has its own manufacturing facility in the US. Zhang Ruimin, the founder, has acquired a cult following as a business hero, and a movie was even made about the founding and early days at Haier.
For this reason, Zhang's visit to Taiwan had added importance and significance. In 2002, Haier signed a partnership agreement with Taiwan's Sampo Group, which is also in the home appliance industry. On his trip to Taiwan, Zhang will explore ways to increase cooperation between Haier and Sampo. Sampo currently does some refrigerator manufacturing for Haier, and sells compressors for air conditioners to Haier.
Recently, Haier has also diversified into electronics and IT-related products, and has explored ways of making "intelligent" home products. Some components it has bought from Taiwan are used in DVD players, motherboards, mobile phones, refrigerators and air conditioners.
Haier also plans to make an 8 inch silicon wafer plant in Qingdao, and it is believed that Zhang will also visit some chip foundries in Taiwan.
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China Business Strategy , a strategic planning consultancy, has helped companies build more than US$3 billion of market capitalization in the China market since 1998.
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