Asustek cutting 14% of staff in shift to China

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the nation's biggest maker of boards that connect chips in personal computers, said it will fire about 1,000 workers, or a seventh of its staff, at home as it shifts production to China.

"We will move more motherboard manufacturing to the mainland," said David Chang, Asustek's deputy financial director, responding to a local newspaper report.

Chang declined to say how many people Asustek will hire in China, citing possible problems with Taiwan's government.

He also refused to say how much the job cuts will cost.

Asustek's shares fell NT$1.5, or 2.5 percent, to close at NT$59.5 per share on the TAIEX. The company said in a statement that its sales last month fell 10 percent to NT$6.4 billion (US$184 million) from NT$7.1 billion a year ago.

Asustek will boost output at an existing plant in Suzhou, which already has more than 10,000 employees, the report said.

The company said the cost saving this year will exceed expenses associated with cutting the jobs. Asustek will pay as much as two months' wages as dismissal fees to contract and foreign workers that will lose employment.

Inventec Co (英業達), the third-largest notebook-computer maker in the nation, said last year in December that it had planned to cut about 500 jobs, or a quarter of its domestic staff and move more work to China.

The company forecast profit will fall in the first quarter because customer Hewlett-Packard Co is cutting prices.