Taiwanese lock maker to invest $10M more for expansion of its Subic facility

By Max V. de Leon

TAIPEI—Taiwanese lock maker Tong Lung Metal Industry Co. Ltd. announced its plan to invest another $10 million in the Subic Bay Freeport to expand the capacity of its existing facility there by at least 30 percent.

Denny Yang, president and chief executive officer of Tong Lung Metal based here, said the new investment will be plowed in to the additional 3-hectare property that it is leasing from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

Tong Lung, Yang said, has already invested about $10 million to its original 2.2-hectare factory in the free port that has a capacity to produce up to 1 million lock sets every month.

Yang said the new factory the company will be constructing next year will increase its capacity by at least 30 percent and will meet its rising demand from the North American market.
“The major business for our Philippine unit is North America, because we don’t have a production base there,” Yang said.

Also, Yang said, his company is hoping to gain access to other Asean countries like Thailand at preferential duties if it meets the required local content for its products to be certified as Philippine-made and, therefore, eligible for the lower Asean-Common Effective Preferential Tariff rates.

Yang said his company is now talking to the suppliers of its intermediate materials in Taiwan to also put up a factory in the 3-hectare property that the company is leasing from the SBMA.
The most important suppliers that it needs to tag along, he said, are the makers of screw and packaging materials.

Should it fail to convince its suppliers to go to Subic, Yang said his company’s other option is to vertically integrate its manufacturing operation.

“If our suppliers will go there [Subic], that would translate to more investments,” Yang said.
Tong Lung is the manufacturer of global lock brands such as EZ Set and Lucky.
Tong Lung’s new investment in Subic would generate another 600 new jobs and bring its total employees there to about 1,000.