Astro Vietnam: A pioneer that keeps innovating
By the turn of the millennium, most of the large players in Taiwan’s bicycle industry moved their volume-oriented production to China in order to remain competitive. But the founder of Astro, Samuel Hu, decided not to follow the herd – and after careful consideration, decided to invest in Vietnam’s Binh Duong province, just north of Ho Chi Minh City in Dong An.
Hu never regretted doing so, as Astro built a second, more modern factory further north in Kim Huy. While the original factory focusses on volume production of alloy frames, the newer factory also has a carbon frame department. Of its total staff of 3,500 Astro employs 3,250 in Vietnam, producing 90 percent of its frames in the country.
Reduced capacity due to the market slump
Hu wants the industry to learn from the current issues to prevent a repeat of the overstock problems. He believes that production automation is a key way to achieving this – for both carbon and alloy frames. An in-house team of more than 60 engineers at Astro Engineering has come up with such solutions.
Astro Vietnam has installed a fully automated production line
Astro’s Dong An factory is scheduled to be replaced by 2026. A new plot of land measuring 42,000 m2 has already been acquired, so this supplier can continue its way to an annual production of one million units.