The Ministry of Economic Affairs approved a US$3.5 million investment application from notebook computer maker Compal Elec-tronics Co (
Opposition to government controls on China investment has risen over the past year, and government officials have already delayed announcing new laws three times. Failure to reveal new policies by the end of this month will make four delays, and some companies are running out of time.
Once Toshiba gets its China plant running at full capacity, notebook orders "will be taken away from Compal," said Chang Chih-ming, director of investments at Compal. Toshiba is Compal's largest customer, with almost half the latter's output going to the Japanese notebook powerhouse.
The Toshiba plant started pilot production of notebooks earlier this year, pumping out between 10,000 to 20,000 notebook computers per month. It's only a matter of time before plant managers work out the kinks and ramp up production to full capacity. Once the firm is ready, it will reduce orders to OEM partner Compal. If other Japanese notebook makers speed construction of plants in China, they could take away Taiwan's title as the world's number one supplier of notebook computers.
Chang believes Toshiba's China plant will be up to full production by the end of the year, about the time Compal expects the government to relax its policy on notebook manufacturing in China.
The application to invest US$3.5 million in China is part of the firm's two-year plan to construct four new plants to complement Compal's three CRT monitor factories already operating there. One of the new plants is for notebooks, another for mobile phone production and one is another CRT monitor factory.
The company expects to save between 3 and 5 percent on the manufacturing cost of notebook computers by relocating to China, enough to help weather the current slowdown in PC sales worldwide.
And Compal isn't the only notebook maker to move forward with China plans in anticipation of the move forward.
According to local reports, Quanta Computer's (廣達電腦) new motherboard manufacturing plant began operations yesterday. Analysts say Quanta was the last of Taiwan's notebook makers to build facilities in China. Compal, Inventec Co (英業達), Acer and Arima Computer Corp (華宇電腦) already operate factories in China, and Quanta officials say they delayed only due to government regulations.
The industry is now united in pressuring the government to hurry its policy revision along, and allow notebook manufacturing to commence in China.
Taiwan's high tech regulators also restrict Taiwanese firms from the production of semiconductors and petrochemicals in China.
In the most strongly worded statement on the issue thus far, Acer Inc (
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