I'm thinking all the time about how to allocate these elements and resources in a reasonable manner and successive arrangement, and to further develop in an urban and rural space.
Visioning the Future, High-Tek Exhibits the Linkage Ability Through the Field of Energy_Interview with Hsiao-Chin Wei, Chairman of High-Tek

Visioning the Future, High-Tek Exhibits the Linkage Ability Through the Field of Energy_Interview with Hsiao-Chin Wei, Chairman of High-Tek
Hsiao-Chin Wei, Chairman of High-Tek
By Xin-En Wu, Mei-Hsu Shih
Starting as a computer wire manufacturer, High-Tek Harness Enterprise Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "High-Tek") was established in 1984 and became an IPO in 2005, achieving a high global market share with its products. In recent years, High-Tek has been actively expanding into the fields of offshore wind and energy storage, achieving exceptional performances, and driving the curiosity of the society for High-Tek's vision and how it grasped the opportunity for transition.
Sensing crisis within stability
Going proactive for business operation
"Connection wires don't seem like such a big deal. In terms of the total amount, whether for computers or notebooks, the unitary prices of such products are usually low. However, wires are in fact the soul of the whole operation as they enable the linkage for communication between all components," indicated Hsiao-Chin Wei, Chairman of High-Tek.
In 2009, High-Tek's products once reached one-fourth of the global market share. However, due to the emergence of the red supply chain, High-Tek started facing new threats and challenges. "Environmental policies in Mainland China didn't pose many requirements back then, so the production cost there is much lower than what Taiwanese manufacturers had to struggle with. We faced a lot of threats at that time," Wei said. "Mainland China's environmental policies have become stricter in the past few years, so the sales performance of wires has become more stable. Under the pandemic, more notebooks were produced, which also further increased the wire sales."
Although the business has become more stable, instead of feeling secure, Wei saw something alarming in his success. "The company operations have not gained more flexibility during the transition process of the industry, but only acted responsively, which means our sale performances was still highly relying on the amount of sold notebooks," Wei explained. "No matter what high quality we achieved with our wire products, it will not grant a better development for the company." Such crisis awareness then became the opportunity that initiated the company's transition.
"The company needed to transform for its future. As a company listed in TWSE, we have our commitment to the shareholders for the company's sustainable development, and that is the core concept of our transition," Wei noted. Therefore, in 2017, witnessing how the global market was shifting towards cross-industry integration and blockchain development, High-Tek was transformed into a group with four new major departments established in addition to the original electronic wire business, which are sustainable life and energy, urban and rural development, medical biotechnology, and financial technology and service.
Such deployment and the mindset of linkage were nourished by Wei's business development experiences in Mainland China, Taiwan, and even Japan and Southeast Asia over the years. Having a professional architectural background, Wei used to take part in the rural village ecosystem establishment works in Mainland China in the early days, where his tasks were related to human behaviors, service ecosystem, production nature, etc., which allowed him to gain the precious insight on the core abilities and establishments required for the environment, production, and services that are most optimized for human lives.
"This is how our four business departments were organized! To change a rural village, we first need electricity to power the machines and improve life quality. Then, financial technology comes in to enable supply chain management and solve production-sales problems. Next, we aim to fulfill "medical demands," a basic need for life, which is also an advantage of Taiwan," Wei noted. "Our solution is extended from remote communication technologies, so the ‘online medical service‘ is a key part of our expansion in the field of medical care. The next step is to allocate these elements and resources in a reasonable manner and successive arrangement, and to further develop in an urban and rural space."
Mastery in the field of steel structure became the company's entrance point for the wind power industry
Wei's every decision is part of a bigger vision, which is how an opportunity was presented for High-Tek to join the wind power development.
"As an expert in architecture project management, land development, and resource integration, adding the career experiences I earned in Mainland China and Taiwan over the years, I know that electricity and energy is the most crucial factor which drives technological progress and economic development of a region or country," Wei explained. "Just as what the renewable energy pioneer, Carsten Pedersen, the current chairman of Welcon said: ‘With high living standards and decent environment, developed countries are still devoting a large number of resources in the development of clean energy to improve their life quality.’ Thus, I believe, renewable energy is an inevitable industry of this century."
Why did High-Tek choose offshore wind among all options for energy transformation and renewable energy development? Wei explained that wind power has a close relationship with the company's core business. High-Tek has already invested in the knowledge for the manufacturing of steel structure engineering and construction management of the engineering material field. With the already abundant experience, High-Tek started to study all the development possibilities in this field, which led the company to ally with Century Iron & Steel (Century Iron & Steel Industrial Co., Ltd.) and establish High Tek-Century (High Tek-Century Offshore Wind Power Steel Structure Co., Ltd.). Next, they obtained exclusive land for the wind power industry in the Port of Taichung.
In November 2019, High-Tek Century started collaborating with Danish Welcon A/S in the manufacturing of offshore wind turbine towers. To avoid the repeated investment of equipment, reduce the overall investment amount, increase the production capacity utilization rate, and maximize the investment benefits, High-Tek Century merged with Tai-Shin Century to form the Century Huaxin Wind Energy Co., Ltd.
Wei emphasized that for industrial strategic investment as large as offshore wind, Taiwan enterprises must also expand internationally to break through the limited-scale Taiwanese market. "Do we have any chance to compete? Of course, the chances have always been there, but victory can only be achieved by the development or strategic mindset of the Taiwanese manufacturers."
Aiming at the energy market
Crossing into the energy storage field
"The government has announced the 2050 net-zero emission strategy and energy transition will certainly play a crucial role. For Taiwanese enterprises, it is the official starting gunshot for the rush of more opportunities and challenges," Wei said. The current Taiwanese energy transition policy aims to increase the proportion of renewable energy while also ensuring power supply stability, which is more than challenging in reality. The most important turning point here would be "energy storage".
"At the early stage of the energy transition, Taiwan used to apply the logic of ‘creating more energy,’ as we believed that after shutting down a power plant, we must try to make up for the lost power. So, people were striving to construct the facility to generate the amount of power same as the shut-down power plant, and we would try to make up with renewable energy under the energy transition policy," Wei explained. "The problem is, renewable energy is not stable, and it requires a management method similar to the ones applied to water resources, which includes diversion, storage, and adjustment, especially when the source is unstable." Thus, Wei believed that the importance of overcoming the time difference between storage, demand, and supply, is no less than the development of renewable energy itself.
Witnessing the situation, High-Tek entered the energy storage market by establishing a cooperation with the Taiwanese battery manufacturer C-Life Technologies, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "C-Life"). Wei pointed out that due to the batteries' high current and high voltage, the safety issue is a major concern. "Thus, we were extremely careful when we were seeking our partner. We realized that ITRI's STOBA (self-terminated oligomers with hyper-branched architecture) technology, an anti-explosion technology for lithium batteries, will significantly increase battery safety," Wei said. "C-Life possesses the right to use ITRI's patented battery safety material with STOBA, so High-Tek decided to partner with C-Life to establish a lithium battery production line. In the future, we will not only provide safe and stable energy storage equipment but also add in the automatic frequency control (AFC) service for energy storage."
Wei pointed out that if the batteries can be frequently deployed at all types of sites like water towers, including factories, public buildings, business spaces, or residences, and all the power consumption units are equipped with energy storage functions, we will be able to balance and make-up the insufficiencies in the development of renewable energy.
With the net-zero emission policy facing numerous challenges
Pragmatic responses are essential
On Taiwan's net-zero policy, Wei believed that an energy policy fully relying on renewable energy will certainly generate more problems for the nation's future economic development. "This is what made net--zero carbon emission a global consensus, as climate change is currently the hugest risk for the survival of human civilization."
Under the current consensus, the impact on Taiwan's industries is even greater. Wei pointed out that the export-oriented nature of most industries in Taiwan, especially the electronic industries which have been mostly exporting to developed countries such as Europe, the US, Japan, etc., will have to bear a greater amount of "net-zero cost," including the carbon tax, carbon border tax, carbon trading fee, etc. The electronic business and enterprises will soon have to face the first wave of impact, yet there are not many tools available in Taiwan, resulting in immediate purchases or struggles for any green electricity on the Taiwanese market, as electricity is the largest factor for the carbon footprint.
"Aegies Fund Management PLC., one of the subsidiaries of High-Tek was fortunate to be recommended by the Securities and Exchange Regulator of Cambodia to represent the country at the 'ASEAN Taxonomy V2' Development Advisory Meeting to discuss and advise on perpetual finance," Wei indicated. "One major problem is Taiwan's scarce chances of joining international organizations. Taking ASEAN as an example, it can be seen as a nation with borders," Wei noted. "For Singapore, carbon neutrality can only be achieved through trading, which is why it decided to establish carbon exchange for its carbon credits demands. As for the closest carbon credit source available for Singapore, that would be the ASEAN." Looking back to Taiwan, not being part of any international organization will certainly result in severe challenges on the path to net-zero emissions.
With the restrictions of an island nation, the major energy supply of Taiwan depends on imports, and no electricity can be directly imported from the neighboring country. Thus, Wei believed that the use of energy must focus on efficiency and pragmatic allocation, especially on the overall energy demand and supply as well as the policy, the power structure is beyond imperative.
"At the current stage, we still can't fully determine which choice would be the right answer; however, the development of renewable energy and green energy is certainly the correct path. Still, we need complementary strategies for the policies, such as the development of an energy storage system, or maybe we should consider using clean energy to balance part of the power demand." Wei stated that a non-nuclear homeland is a grand vision, yet under the current status of Taiwan's power structure, nuclear power accounted for 11% of power consumption in 2021, followed by 45% of coal and 36% of gas-fired generation. As for the solar energy and wind power emphasized by the authorities, they accounted for only 5.4% even after a certain level of growth. In other words, only three years remain before the promise of a non-nuclear homeland, yet there is still a significant percentage gap for the targeted energy transition and power structure, not to mention the instability of renewable energy, as well as the risks of shortage or price increase of fossil fuel.
Wei appealed to the government that although carbon reduction is a global trend, the government must list the cost of the goals at every stage in a pragmatic way for more realistic actions. Companies need to think quickly about how to adjust their supply chain strategies, including operations, power allocation under the pressure of net-zero emissions and power structure transformation, and more importantly, to reduce their carbon footprint or obtain carbon rights. It will be the biggest challenge for Taiwanese enterprises in the future. "At the same time, the huge demand gap also creates opportunities, which is why we invested in energy storage and power energy management services. Taiwan's energy transition will bring about a wave of vigorous development of technology and business models, and in the future, our experience can be exported overseas, while the international capital and investment opportunities can be introduced," Wei said.
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