Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest contract manufacturer of laptop PCs, yesterday announced that it was purchasing Toshiba Corp’s LCD TV manufacturing plant in Mexico as part of its efforts to boost LCD TV production.
The Taiwanese maker said in a statement that it has entered into a contract to acquire Toshiba Electromex SA de CV, which is located in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
The statement did not disclose investment figures except to say the deal was expected to be completed by September, pending regulatory approval.
The deal is expected to help Compal secure stable orders from Toshiba, which is one of Compal’s major TV customers.
Brand customers will sometimes sell their production facilities to contract manufacturers as a means to save costs and outsource future orders.
Through the purchase, contract manufacturers hope to ensure stable orders from these clients and at the same time expand production facilities.
For instance, Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) spent NT$100 million (US$3 million) in 2005 to acquire assets of two of Hewlett-Packard Co’s manufacturing facilities, one each in Australia and India.
In 2008, Hon Hai invested US$18 million to buy a cellphone manufacturing plant in Mexico from Motorola Inc.
“By acquiring Toshiba Electromex, Compal looks forward to expanding LCD TV manufacturing flexibility, diversified sales mix, and revenue growth momentum in the future,” the statement said.
Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said at the Computex technology trade fair in Taipei early last month that the company was setting its sights on “four screens” to fuel future growth momentum.
These four screens are notebooks, tablet PCs, TVs and smartphones.
The company expects to produce 8 million LCD TVs this year, up from last year’s 5.4 million, he said.
Shares of Compal closed down 1.5 percent to NT$33.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS