Development Bottleneck

 
     
 
　　A saxophone is mostly hand assembled during the production process. It's a time consuming and costly process. In view of the ever-increasing labor costs in Taiwan and the threat of China's cheap labor, the competitiveness of Taiwan's saxophone industry is not the same as before. As a result, the size of Taiwan's saxophone industry is starting to dwindle.

　　Taiwan is following Japan's footstep in moving some larger manufacturing plants to China. The cheaper labor costs in China enable these companies to stay competitive, as are the Japanese counterparts, such as Yamaha and Jupiter. The smaller companies can only stay competitive by relying on constantly introducing new technologies and by offering their customers better supports and services.

A saxophone is mostly hand assembled during the production process.
A saxophone is mostly hand assembled during the production process.
 
 

　　In Holi, there is a group of saxophone makers who belong to the Taiwan Brass Party. Their thinking is more conservative, so their production can't match those of the Beautiful Sound Party. Regrettably, the production of main saxophone bodies has been slowly phased out from Holi. Instead, the main bodies were purchased from other suppliers. The phasing out of main body production will no doubt put a damper on the development effort.

 

  
  　　After the Chinese marketplace was open to free enterprises, famous companies such as Yamaha and Jupiter started to move their manufacturing facilities to China. Having so many major players also raised the technology level of China. Unfortunately, most of Taiwan's companies are small to medium sized, so they are unable to compete with the major companies that have a lot of resources.  
     
  　　In the unfavorable environment of following the footsteps of Japan while looking over the shoulder for China, it is imperative for Taiwan’s saxophone industry to come together as one. It is time for people of different school of thoughts to forget their differences. The only way for them to survive now is to cooperate on developing finer, and more specialized products.