Unaxis Holding AG, one of the world's largest flat-panel-display equipment suppliers, yesterday announced a NT$1 billion expansion plan in Taiwan to keep pace with local companies' voracious appetite for next-generation equipment.
The new investment comes as Taiwanese flat-panel makers, led by AU Optronics Corp (
"Taiwan is not only the place you have to go, but also a place you have to be," the Swiss company's chief executive, Heinz Kundert, said during his speech for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new manufacturing line at Chunan Science Park in Miaoli.
Unaxis, which supplies Taiwan's two largest flat-display panel makers, AU Optronics and Chi Mei Otpoelectronics Corp (
Taiwanese suppliers of LCD panels plan to invest heavily in new facilities this year by grabbing half of the world's total investment of US$9.42 billion in the sector, outpacing most of their South Korean rivals, market researcher DisplaySearch predicted in January.
Taiwan is also expected to lead in capital expenditure next year, DisplaySearch said.
AU Optronics and Chi Mei plan to spend NT$85 billion and NT$48.5 billion, respectively, on new facilities this year.
In response to its local customers' plans to build advanced fabs needing larger glass panels and equipment, Unaxis expects to supply LCD panel makers with advanced sixth- and seventh-generation (G6 and G7) equipment next year, Kundert said.
That will be just in time for AU, which expects its first G6 factory in Taichung to begin production in the first quarter of next year.
Chi Mei hopes its G7 factory in Tainan will start mass production in the first quarter of 2006. Chi Mei said the plant will cost between NT$100 billion and NT$120 billion.
Commenting on the world's LCD panel industry, Ruurd Boomsma, an executive vice president of Unaxis Balzers AG, said he expected healthy competition between Taiwanese and South Korean companies.
But he said Unaxis did not have any immediate expansion plans for South Korea. Unaxis has two sites in Seoul, but they are smaller than its Taiwanese factory, Boomsma said.
Even though China is seen as a threat in a number of other areas, Boomsma said Chinese companies will not pose a threat to their Taiwanese rivals until after 2010.
"Even though China is evolving into a stronger player, Taiwan will still be an entry to China," he said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS