Trump’s tariffs damaging Taiwan’s screw industry

Taiwan is world famous for making semiconductors and electronics. Its factories have mastered the intricate work of etching circuits onto silicon, churning out most of the world’s supply of advanced computer chips.

- MEAGHAN TOBIN XINYUN WU.

Lu Chu Shin Yee is one of Taiwan's largest screw companies. It makes parts used in subway cars, high-speed trains and data centre exhaust fans. NYT

The island is also a major source of another essential and often invisible component of everyday objects: screws. And most go to the United States, where they are used to build airports, backyard decks and bathroom cabinets.

Now, President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium, which took effect in June, have left Taiwanese screw makers wondering how their businesses will survive the next few months. For the United States, Taiwan has been the No. 1 source of screws and metal fasteners like nuts and bolts for more than three decades, with China gaining ground as the second largest.

Taiwan's screw factories, in the island’s south, sprawl across industrial districts like Lujhu and Gangshan, where the sounds of chugging machinery echo around the clock.

The area is home to about 1,500 companies making screws, and about 1 in every 8 people works in the industry, according to Chiu Chih-Wei, a legislator from Kaohsiung. The road is littered with so many stray screws and metal pieces that drivers frequently need to replace their tyres.

Kent Chen’s grandfather founded Sheh Fung Screws Co in 1973. Its factories operate day and night making more than 1,000 types of screws. Most of them are sold under his customers’ brand names in the United States at stores like Home Depot.

Mr Chen, 48, took over the management of Sheh Fung in 2010. He invested in new equipment and systems to appeal to foreign customers and worked with an American company that makes paint for cars to colour-match screws to wood. Business boomed.