Tong Yang Industrial Co., Ltd., the largest automotive body-parts maker in Taiwan, reportedly won a three-year, 1-billion-yen order from a Japanese automaker, according to industry sources.

The surging Japanese yen against U.S. dollar, coupled with floods in Thailand last year as well as the recent quake-tsunami in northeastern Japan, continue to drive Japanese automakers to rethink and outsource to overseas suppliers to diversify supply and reduce risk in case of future calamities. Tong Yang is well positioned to be given such order due to its long-term cooperation with Japanese automakers, the sources added.

Tong Yang announced earlier that it will invest NT$180 million (US$6 million) to renovate coating lines at its plant in Guanyin, Taoyuan County in northern Taiwan, which produces mainly original equipment (OE) parts for automakers, which will double capacity at the factory.

Crispin Wu, Tong Yang president, estimates that the increasing orders from Japanese automakers will raise the company`s proportion of OE parts production to exceed 70% from 50% currently.

The largest auto-parts maker in Greater China, Tong Yang produces mainly plastic and sheet-metal body parts, cooling-system parts as radiators, evaporators etc., with the sheet-metal and cooling-system parts mainly for the aftermarket, and plastic body parts for OE and AM segments.

Industry insiders say that the new OE order is for plastic body parts typically ordered as options and to be shipped to the Japanese automaker`s overseas plant, with Tong Yang`s Guanyin factory to begin shipping the first batch by the end of the year.