Kinpo Group (金仁寶集團), one of the nation’s leading electronics conglomerates, will raise salaries at its factories in China and is planning to establish new manufacturing bases in central and western China, the group’s chairman said yesterday.
Kinpo chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said he expected the planning of new manufacturing bases to be completed by the end of this year and to see the results next year.
The group, which includes the world’s biggest contract notebook maker — Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) — has four manufacturing bases in the Chinese cities of Dongguan, Kunshan, Wujiang and Nanjing.
Although the expected pay hikes will increase the company’s costs, Hsu said after a shareholder meeting of Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信), another group member, that the group would be able to bear the additional pressure.
He added, however, that in the face of increasing labor costs, his group would continue to put more effort into developing semi-automation, which would mean fewer jobs.
Asked if the group would raise contract prices, Hsu said that might not be easy as for the past 30 years, contract prices for electronics have mostly dropped instead of rising.
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