Lin Dewang started his career in the wire and cable industry 75 years ago, and built up a wealth of strength during the era of 10 major construction projects. The second generation, Lin Zhiming, took over the company and continued his father’s legacy, leading TaTun Power to the highest specifications, as well as investing in the green energy trading business and expanding its sights in Southeast Asia.

“In March, the salesman asked me if the company could take more orders. Because the production capacity is not only full this year, but also until next year and the year after. At the age of 33, he took over the reins of the company, and this year, at the age of 50, TaTun Chairman Lin Zhi-ming took reporters on a tour of the highly automated Wanping Taoyuan Yangmei plant on the first line, and a few unintentional remarks revealed the once-in-a-decade boom in the industry. 2022, Taipower put forward the “Stronger Grid Project”, which is expected to invest $564.5 billion in upgrading the Taiwan power grid system over 10 years. However, among the four companies in Taiwan (TaTun, Ta Ya, Heji, and Huarong) that can supply 345kV (kilovolt) ultra-high-voltage power grids, TaTun has the longest history, but it is the last company to enter the capital market, and it was only listed on the Emerging Stock Exchange in May of this year. TaTun was founded in July 1962, four months before Ta Ya, and has a history of more than 75 years since its founder, Lin Dewang, entered the industry.

Meets Taito’s high standards and exceeds Tatung’s

Extra-high voltage 345kV is currently the highest grade of wire and cable, and because wire and cable is a national facility, Taipower’s evaluation standards are even more stringent, and the certification system goes up from 25 to 69, 161, and then 345, with the higher the threshold, the fewer the industry, and well-known wire and cable companies such as Pacific, Hwa Hsin Lai Wah, and others, are only at the 161kV stage now. TaTun’s main products are extra high voltage cables, medium and high voltage cables, low voltage cables, and rubber cables, which account for 85.7% of its revenue, making TaTun a pure wire and cable manufacturer. TaTun’s revenue has continued to grow over the past three years, reaching NT$4.22 billion in 2023, with a growth rate of 8.21%, a gross margin of 15.3%, a net profit of NT$410 million, and an EPS of NT$12.17. TaTun’s product footprints have spread all over Taiwan and overseas, and TaTun’s products can be found in the wire cables of the Japanese High Speed Railway in the early years, and recently it has supplied the 345 kV ultra-high-voltage cables to the Taiwan Electric Power Company2. Recently, GRECO has provided 345kV UHV cables to Taoyuan Power’s 2 major hubs – Lungtan UHV substation in Taoyuan City, and Lungsaki UHV substation in Tainan City, which are important backbones for the transmission of electricity from the south to the north. GRECO has also undertaken the expansion of Taichung Power Plant, Taoyuan Daitan Power Plant’s No. 8 and No. 9 gas-fired double-cycle units, Kaohsiung Hingda Power Plant’s gas-fired unit renewal and reconstruction, TSMC’s Plant 18 in Baoshan, and Chukoh’s World’s Most Advanced Plant No. 1, among others, to provide advanced semiconductor rubber cables. TaTun has completed more than 48 cable lines and 78 substations, with more than 15,000 kilometers in operation throughout Taiwan. 2022 TaTun won the GE International Supplier Excellence Award in the U.S., with a 6:4 ratio of state-run to privately-run business, and was an invisible champion in the industry before it was listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

Received orders from Japan and received technology transfer.

Lin said his father, Lin Dewang was born in the Japanese colonial era, early cut into the military maintenance of electrical appliances, pulling wire business, and later engaged in wire-related business dealerships. 1949 began production of bare copper wire and gradually entered the cable manufacturing, and then due to the performance of the original site is not enough to use the 1970 to Taoyuan, Bade factory, the opportunity to start rapid growth. 1970s, President Chiang Ching-kuo to promote the 10 major construction projects. In the 1970s, President Chiang Ching-kuo promoted the 10 major construction projects, and TaTun began to focus on Taipower’s bidding projects. At that time, TaTun bought the first set of 25kV equipment, which was the most advanced equipment in the industry in Taiwan. Mr. Lin said, “Father bought the first set of 25kV equipment, which was the most advanced equipment in the industry in Taiwan, for 60 to 70 million dollars, showing that he had great courage. In 1981, TaTun passed Taipower’s inspection, which coincided with the beginning of construction in the Middle East region. Almost every wire and cable factory in Taiwan was fully loaded on their production lines, and Lin recalled, “Whenever TaTun shipped out, there would always be traffic jams on Yongfeng Road in Badeh District, because big trucks would be coming one after another to catch up with the shipping schedule. At that time, GRECO had accumulated abundant strength, with an annual turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars, and also received orders from Japan. Japan’s Mitsuwa Electric Wire wanted to find a partner in Taiwan, specializing in two special types of wire, first aid wire for automobiles and power cords for small appliances. They personally sent high-level executives to TaTun to teach them from production setup to route planning, making TaTun’s technology leap forward, and becoming the key to TaTun’s close integration with Japan’s technology. Later, Sanwa Cable was acquired by Furukawa and became a subsidiary, and TaTun’s 345kV production capability came from the technology transfer and counseling from Furukawa Electric Group. 25kV cable was the most common cable on the market before and after 1990, but as the market gradually became saturated and there were many competitors, “My father had asked me to look into 69kV and 161kV a long time ago,” said Lin, who evaluated the equipment and roughly estimated the investment to exceed $400 million. After evaluating the equipment, Lin found that the rough estimate of the investment was more than $400 million, and it would take two and a half years to see the results. During the process, he would be forced to introduce computerization to change the production process, and because of the different uses, there were huge differences in the details of the process, and there was a lot of opposition from the family and the employees. Fortunately, Lin Dewang supported his son and set up another factory in Yangmei in 1994, and finally, in 2001, TaTun passed Taipower’s 69kV and 161kV power cable finalization tests. However, in 2001, Lin Dewang passed away, TaTun was caught in the divergence of business direction, the two generations of ideas, coupled with the order window, the company faced a downturn in operations, until 2007, confirmed by the youngest son of Lin Chi-Ming to take over the helm of the company, the company gradually stabilized. 2011, Lin Chi-Ming saw the trend of the industry, and decided to invest in the 3kV field of 45 domains. Lin pointed out that the large size of the cable and the high requirements of the production environment have certain barriers to entry, including capital costs, time and technology thresholds; in addition, the purchase of a hundreds of millions of dollars of 345kV machine will have to wait for 18 months, “no less than TSMC waiting for the time of the EUV machine,” all the way from the qualification and continuous revision, at least more than 3 years. 2015, TaTun to obtain the Taitronix 345kV shipment qualification. In 2015, Taipower obtained the qualification to ship 345kV machines from Taipower.

Aiming at Taipower in the primary sector and energy storage in the secondary sector.

Taitung’s certification system is stringent, and all certifications must go through an application and review process, which includes stereotyping tests, reviewing stereotyping test reports, etc. For 345kV alone, there are more than 100 test items, including a 365-day cyclic aging test, which takes at least one year to simulate the degree of aging of the cables after 20 years. In addition, how to combine temperature, pressure and other circumstances to produce the best benefits, as well as the formula are all thresholds, during which several failures, “with a copper wire of 10,000 U.S. dollars per ton, we are constantly testing the process of at least hundreds of tons of copper lost, do not dare to count…”.

There are many opportunities for TaTun in the future. Firstly, in addition to targeting Taipower’s tough grid project, which has a $10 billion order in hand, Lin has also put the Hualien energy storage plant into operation last year, and in May of this year, he became a qualified power switching vendor, officially launching Taipower’s FM power service, with the goal of completing the construction of more than 150MW (megawatts) of storage systems by 2025 in total.

Source of information-https://www.wealth.com.tw/articles/3aab0d29-695f-4ed7-afd7-685ac2b4bc4e?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1dAUk1rcfieJtPu2CMGbQWurZBsCowoNWgbYg-0SRJS7QrOlsYoACWfkI_aem_YJouz230mKChu2GoTSW2rQ