The employees of Wel Champ Industries Co., a company producing computer peripheral products in Shulin City, were stunned when they arrived at work in the morning only to find that the entrance to the factory was locked and the owner of the company, Huang Hung-yuan, and his managers were nowhere to be found.

The workers could hardly believe that the factory, which was operating normally a day earlier, had folded for good.

Other companies with outstanding payments to collect from Wel Cham were also left uncertain as to how to get their money.

While some of Wel Champ's employees were guarding the factory property, others appealed to the Bureau of Labor Affairs of the Taipei County government to intervene on their behalf.

Statistics compiled by the Ministry of Economics Ministry show that in the first 10 months of this year, 2,419 factories closed down -- a 60 percent increase over the same period of 2006.