2025 Taiwan Expo USA opens, features smart manufacturing, drones

Dallas, Aug. 14 (CNA) The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and health care.

According to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event's organizer, the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Foxconn), the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO Corp.; PC brand Asustek Computer Inc.; and drone maker Thunder Tiger Corp.

In his opening speech, TAITRA Chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as American tech companies from Silicon Valley move in and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster along the U.S.-Mexico border and invest in the state.

He cited several investments already made by Taiwanese companies in Texas, including the US$3.5 billion invested by GlobalWafers Co. in a new silicon wafer manufacturing plant in Sherman.

At the same event, Ingrid Larson, the managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan's Washington office, praised Taiwan for its prowess in semiconductor production.

Taiwan has recently stepped up its investment efforts to help the United States achieve its goal of revitalizing manufacturing, Larson said.

She singled out Texas in particular, which has attracted players in the semiconductor supply chain as well as high-tech sectors, including Taiwanese companies such as GlobalWafers, Delta Electronics, Foxconn, Inventec, and Wistron.

Also at the show, Taiwan-based Toptek, which provides machine tool automation solutions, said manufacturers moving production to the U.S. had become a growing trend in response to global economic and trade changes.

With higher labor costs in Texas, demand for automation is strong, creating opportunities for robotics adoption, Toptek said, and that demand is being given an additional boost by companies setting up manufacturing bases in the U.S. because of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

On drones, Thunder Tiger Chief Strategy Officer Chang Feng-ning (張峰寧) said there is strong demand for single-use, suicide-type attack drones due to the Russia-Ukraine war and trends in the U.S. defense industry.

Currently, most drone motors are made in China, but Thunder Tiger has established a motor production line in Taiwan, he said, and the company intends to extend its drone component production to the U.S. to seize opportunities and help the U.S. disengage from Chinese supply chains.

The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA, which also features the Taiwan-U.S. Supply Chain Cooperation Forum, is being held at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas until Saturday.

Also on Thursday, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) inaugurated its trade and investment center in Dallas, in the hope of fostering closer cooperation between the two sides.

It is the third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center established by the MOEA as part of the "offshore operations, onshore management" policy promoted by Economics Minister Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝), following similar centers in the Czech Republic and Japan.

At the Taiwan Expo, William Liu (劉威廉), director-general of the International Trade Administration under the MOEA, said that over the past 18 months, Taiwan has been the largest source of foreign direct investment in Texas.

Liu said the trade center will strengthen industrial collaboration and development with Texas by coordinating MOEA resources to promote two-way investment, trade, and industrial and technological cooperation.