Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday confirmed that it is to invest a total of US$500 million in its manufacturing plant in Vietnam.
“In a bid to meet the client’s growing demand, the company decided to reopen the plant in Vietnam,” Compal spokesman Gary Lu (呂清雄) said by telephone.
Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) in June told shareholders that the company expects its non-notebook business, which accounted for 23 percent of the firm’s total revenues last year, to grow by at least 30 percent this year, as the company successfully entered the supply chains of two new smartphone maker clients.
“One of the new smartphone clients is a Chinese handset maker,” Chen said.
Lu said Compal has started to manufacture a small number of smartphones in Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam, and is to gradually expand the production capacity of the plant.
Compal plans to inject US$500 million into the plant in several installments and is to increase its labor force from 200 people to 2,000 people.
The Taiwanese contract manufacturer announced in November 2007 that it would build a manufacturing plant in Vietnam in an attempt to expand its production capacity for the growing notebook business.
The Vietnamese government granted Compal an investment permit in the same year, with the investment expected to generate 35,000 jobs, according to Vietnamese newspaper Vietnamnet Bridge.
Compal in March 2013 suspended operations at the Vinh Phuc plant, citing incomplete supply chains for notebook products, infrastructure deficiencies and low operation efficiency.
Compal plans to focus on manufacturing smartphones in the reinvested plant, as they require less components and have an easier manufacturing processes compared with Compal’s other products, Lu said.
“Supply chain issues in the manufacturing of smartphones are easier to solve,” Lu said, adding that the company does not plan to produce other devices at the plant at this time.
Vietnam’s vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Chuc was quoted by the Vietnamnet Bridge as saying that the local government is willing to support Compal in implementing its investment project.
Compal’s stock price dropped 0.52 percent to close at NT$18.95 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.11 percent.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
RSS