Press Releases
For Immediate Release
Alpine Electronics, Inc.
Alpine to bolster development and manufacturing in China.
Alpine is strengthening its development and manufacturing systems in China with the aim to reinforce price competitiveness and anticipate future market growth, with the increase in motor transportation occuring throughout the mainland.
We plan to promote development both in hardware and software for our car audio and navigation systems.
Hardware development will be handled by Dalian Alpine Engineering, Inc. (President: Hideo Nozawa), while software will be developed by a joint venture between Northeeast University and Shenyang NEUsoft Co., Ltd. (formerly NEU-Alpine Software Co., Ltd.; Shenyang, President: Liu Jiren).
Currently, we have two manufacturing bases: Dalian Alpine Electronics Co., Ltd. (Dalian, President: Kiyoharu Konya) and Dandong Alpine Electronics Co., Ltd. (Dandong, President: Hideo Yokota).
To enhance and strengthen our current development and manufacturing systems, we will create the following new business hub.
Development
We will establish a technical center at the Dalian Neusoft International Software Park, located in the International Cooperate Industrial District in Dalian, China. Here, we'll integrate two manufacturing bases, to enhance efficiency in the development process and promote local designing and procurement.
| Name (tentative) | Alpine Dalian Development Center |
| President | Hideo Nozawa |
| Address | Gan Jing Zi Area, Dalian |
| Land area | 16,000m2 |
| Facilities | 3-story building; approx. 10,000m2space |
| Investment | $5.0 million (excluding lot and building) |
| Construction start | End of August, 2002 |
| Construction end | End of August, 2003 |
| Work force | 300 at present, increase to 500 by 2005 |
| Development/Design | Car audio systems, navigation systems, etc. |
Manufacturing
We will set up a new manufacturing base in China, our third to date. This will enable us to enlarge our production capacity and reduce our costs of purchasing parts in the Shanghai district, which has seen a large influx of parts makers. By promoting greater parts procurement in the local market, we aim to strengthen our price competitiveness.
| Name (tentative) | Taicang Alpine Electronics Co., Ltd. |
| Address | Economic Development District, Taicang City, Jiangsu Province |
| Land area | 100,000m2 |
| Facilities | 12,000m2 (initially) |
| Investment | $10 million (initially; $30 million total) |
| Construction start | End of October, 2002 |
| Construction end | Beginning of October, 2003 |
| Production items | Car audio |
| Production amount (projected for 2005) |
2 million units (mechanisms);1 million units (completed products) |
Once the new production base is in operation, we anticipate our overseas production ratio will increase (on a unit basis) from the current 60% to 85% by the year 2005.
