Loss-making printer maker Teco Image wins spot on Taiwan government drone contract
The transport-drone item is estimated at about NT$130 million over a year, with no orders guaranteed.
Teco Image Systems (東友科技), a company in Taipei, Taiwan, that makes printers, copiers and scanners for other brands, has won a place supplying transport drones to Taiwan government agencies. It puts the item's estimated value at about NT$130 million (about US$4 million) for one year from signing, but says agencies aren't bound to buy that much.
The win, disclosed in a Nov. 4 filing, is on a joint supply contract that Bank of Taiwan's procurement department runs for nine ministries, including the Ministry of National Defense (國防部). The tender notice bars bidders funded from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.
The company says on its website that it developed drone-mounted platforms in 2022 and finished ground-control software for drones in 2023. Neither the filing nor that page says who builds its drones.
Teco Image is the third company known to win on the contract, budgeted at about NT$1.05 billion (about US$32.3 million) across several items. Thunder Tiger (雷虎科技), a drone maker in Taichung, said in October that it qualified on all six items, transport drones included, so the transport item has at least two suppliers. Its filing says products must meet made-in-Taiwan and supply-chain rules. Y-S Electronic (詠昇電子) won the training item.
Teco Image's revenue for January to September fell 34% from a year earlier, its monthly filings show. In its filings for March to May, the company cited a weak China market, a Japanese customer's lower shipments and a poorly received new model. It posted a nine-month net loss of NT$244.4 million (about US$7.5 million). The item's whole estimate, which Teco Image may share with other suppliers, equals more than a sixth of its nine-month revenue of NT$674.8 million (about US$20.8 million), by our calculation.
The contract serves a push for drones with no Chinese supply chain. The Executive Yuan (行政院), Taiwan's cabinet, asked ministries in January to buy drones through it, aiming for a fully "non-red" supply chain by 2027. It said Taiwan's drone output rose from NT$5 billion in 2024 to NT$12.9 billion in 2025.
Sources
- 東友科技 Teco Image Systems (TPEx filing, award)
- 公開資訊觀測站 MOPS (Teco Image monthly revenue)
- 政府電子採購網 Government e-Procurement System (tender notice LP5-114063)
- 行政院 Executive Yuan
- 東友科技 Teco Image Systems (company website, overview)
Editor: Ian Lamont
