Taiwan's environmental protection agency has cleared flat panel maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) to resume building a new factory in Tainan, a company executive said yesterday.
The sixth-generation plant will start mass production in the second quarter of next year after the clearance from the Environmental Protection Administration, finance director Dennis Chen (
The environmental agency asked the government in June to halt construction of the factory in Tainan because of concerns over pollution.
Chi Mei, the world's fourth-largest flat-panel maker by revenue, is targeting monthly capacity of 30,000 flat panels at the plant once it starts operation, Chen said. That will rise to 60,000 flat panels a month by the end of next year and the plant will eventually be able to produce 90,000 flat panels a month, he said.
NEXT GENERATION
The company also has plans to build an eighth-generation plant, but hasn't decided when to start construction. Earliest operation would be in the middle of 2009, because it takes a year-and-a-half to build a factory, Chen said.
Shares of Chi Mei gained NT$1.30, or 2.96 percent, to NT$45.30. Sales at Chi Mei Group will climb 40 percent to NT$700 billion (US$21.6 billion) next year, Loreta Chen (陳靜燕), a Chi Mei public relations official, said by telephone yesterday, confirming a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News. Growth will be driven by a 25 percent to 30 percent increase in flat-panel shipments, she said.
"The demand for LCDs will continue to exceed supplies in the near term," said Andrew Wang, who helps manage US$1.3 billion at Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise (
RIVALS
Elsewhere, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) gained 1 percent to NT$63.60.
Smaller rivals Chunghwa Picture Tubes Co (
Innolux Display Corp (
Prime View International Co (
"Prime View's purchase signals that panel makers want capacity and that suggests demand is out there," said Robyn Hsu (
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
Garment maker Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) yesterday reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue of NT$7.93 billion (US$251.44 million), down 9.48 percent from NT$8.76 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, revenue fell 10.83 percent from NT$8.89 billion, company data showed. The figure was also lower than market expectations of NT$8.05 billion, according to data compiled by Yuanta Securities Investment and Consulting Co (元大投顧), which had projected NT$8.22 billion. Makalot’s revenue this quarter would likely increase by a mid-teens percentage as the industry is entering its high season, Yuanta said. Overall, Makalot’s revenue last year totaled NT$34.43 billion, down 3.08 percent from its record NT$35.52
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