EETimes Supply Network (04/23/2007 2:26 PM EST)

Gearing up for more business with Japanese customers, EMS provider Integrated Microelectronics Inc. (IMI) has opened a subsidiary in Tokyo.

IMI Japan was formed to serve a growing base of Japan-based OEMs that are choosing to outsource electronics manufacturing. IMI (Laguna, Philippines), largely built its business on outsourcing contracts with Japanese electronics firms. Today, the company derives 53 percent of its total revenue from these customers, said president and CEO, Arthur Tan.

"With the establishment of an IMI subsidiary in Japan, we hope to attract more Japanese OEMs who will outsource manufacturing as well as product development to IMI," Tan said in a released statement.

The subsidary company had been a sales office, but beefed up engineering resources will enable IMI to put more focus on front-end design and product development, providing a "technical bridge" between customers and IMI's engineering centers in the Philippines, Singapore, China and the United States, Tan added.

According to Electronic Trend Publications, Japanese OEMs outsourced $7.1 billion worth of business in 2005, a figure that is expected to nearly double to $13 billion by 2010.