Hong Kong molders
target medical devices
(By
Steve Toloken)
HONG KONG -- A group of Hong Kong
companies, including some large plastic firms, want to see the region become a
hot spot for manufacturing medical devices, and one of their leaders is
suggesting that stepped up efforts are needed to do that. Hong Kong
manufacturers, who built their businesses partly by leveraging the low cost of
mainland China, have been stung by rising costs in those Chinese factories and
the collapse of their traditional export markets in Europe and America. But some
of them are now hoping to combine what they see as their strengths in
manufacturing consumer electronics and other products for Western markets and
join it with Hong Kong’s medical and university centers, to expand into the
potentially more lucrative global medical device arena.
Hong Kong is traditionally strong
in precision manufacturing of plastics, metals and electronics, and needs to
find ways to link that with its solid base of university biomedical engineering
programs and clinical research to start commercializing new medical technology,
according to John Chai, chairman of the Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device
Industries Association. “What need to happen is there need to be a health care
innovation program, to coordinate this innovation activity,” said Chai, who is
also an executive with plastic molder and measurement equipment maker, Fook Tin
Technologies Ltd. “We need someone, probably from the government, not leading
itself but organizing all these elements to be put together.” In an interview at
the inaugural Hong Kong International Medical Devices and Supplies Fair, he said
that the city’s medical manufacturing industry “is in its infancy.” Nonetheless,
he said exports of medical equipment and health care products from Hong Kong
have grown 50 percent since 2004, to US$4.2 billion last year.
Chai said, for too long, local
firms focused on making consumer electronics, toys and other products for large
multinational firms, but they need to step into higher-end markets and focus
more on product innovation. He suggested that the Hong Kong Innovation and
Technology Commission could play a stronger role in fostering health care
innovation. While Hong Kong-based firms have a long history of exporting to
North America, Europe and Japan, they could still face hurdles transitioning to
medical devices because of skepticism about whether China is a safe place to
manufacture world-standard health care products, according to David Wong,
business development president with Hong Kong-based injection molder
Mediconcepts Ltd.
Vincent Medical Mfg. Co. Ltd.,
which makes respiratory care products using injection, blow molding and
extrusion processes at its factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province, said its
export sales are down somewhat but sales to mainland China are “growing
exponentially,” according to Calvin Koh, marketing manager. Earlier this year,
China announced plans to spend 850 billion Yuan (US$125 billion) to
significantly expand health care access, prompting firms like Vincent to focus
more closely on the domestic China market. Koh said Vincent Medical is also
trying doing more of its own product development, as its costs to manufacture in
China have risen substantially in recent years from the rising Chinese Yuan, “It
is really hard to make profits” making components or products for other
companies, Koh said.
Hong Kong firms have the
potential to use their Chinese manufacturing base to lower costs for
international medical device firms, but the local industry sometimes needs help
building up knowledge of regulatory requirements in the medical field, said
Albert Lee, vice chairman of the HKMHDIA and CEO of Hong Kong-based injection
molder Providence Enterprise Ltd. Providence has about 180 injection molding
machines in several Chinese factories. Lee and others said Hong Kong firms will
also face increasing competition from mainland Chinese medical device makers,
which he said can be cheaper than Hong Kong firms.
One of the those potential
mainland competitors, Ningbo Advan Electrical Co. Ltd., exhibited at the Hong
Kong show, and said sales have doubled in the last year, driven by growth in its
injection molded surgical skin staplers to America and Europe. The company has a
niche product that cannot be easily copied by other local competitors, said
Vivian Liu, sales manager of exports. Lee suggested Hong Kong firms could adopt
a strategy similar to how his firm gradually developed its medical business.
Providence, which now gets about 25 percent of its US$100 million in annual
sales from medical, entered the health care field almost by accident 10 years
ago. Today, the company makes complete devices like nebulizers for dispending
asthma medication in a spray, and its plastic gears and motors go into some of
the most heavily-regulated devices in America, such as hemodialysis machines,
where the risks from product failure are very dangerous for patients.
( Ref:
http://www.plasticsnews.com/
headlines2.html?id=17064&channel=81 )
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