Prime View International Co (PVI, 元太科技) yesterday said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (CMO, 奇美電子) to secure sufficient supply of flat panels for its electronic readers.
Prime View, which supplies electronic paper displays to Amazon Inc and Sony Corp, said it has the full support of Chi Mei’s fifth-generation (5G) plant to help it expand its e-paper business, the company said in a joint statement with CMO.
“Support from CMO’s 5G production line will enable PVI to provide more cost-competitive products to customers in the face of rapid demand growth in the e-paper market,” Prime View chairman Scott Liu (劉思誠) said.
“The mutual collaboration is not only advantageous but also complementary, bringing with it a synergy that is greater than just the alliance of two parties,” he said in the statement.
The demand for electronic paper displays has surged in recent months because of a strong push by Amazon and Sony into the electronic reader market, as well as rising environmental awareness.
The Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) expects worldwide e-reader shipment volume to reach 3.05 million units this year and reach 19.76 million units in 2013.
Another market researcher, NextGen, estimated that the global e-paper reading device market would post a compounded annual growth rate of 124 percent from last year to US$2.5 billion by 2013.
Chi Mei said it expected the collaboration with Prime View to facilitate its entry into the fast-developing electronic paper business.
“We are delighted to work with PVI to provide the most mature e-paper solution in the market. Through the collaboration, not only can CMO expand its presence in the e-paper industry, but its 5G production line will also have a wider range of applications, enhancing its efficiency in capacity allocation,” Chi Mei chairman Frank Liao (廖錦祥) said in the statement.
Prime View’s new partnership with Chi Mei came one day after the company, also a leading maker of smaller flat screens for portable devices, said on Wednesday it would sweeten the terms of its planned acquisition of E Ink Corp to secure the US company’s electronic paper display technologies.
Last year, Prime View acquired South Korean panel maker BOE-Hydis Technology Co to secure production capacity, which was four times larger than its own at the time.
BOE-Hydis mainly manufactures liquid-crystal-display panels for notebook computers.
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