Diversified US manufacturer 3M Co announced yesterday that its new brightness-enhancement film (BEF) plant in Tainan will enter volume production tomorrow, which is expected to help reduce costs for nearby manufacturers of backlight modules and flat panels.
BEF is a key component of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) that increases the screens' brightness by improving the quality of light produced by the backlight module. 3M leads the sector with a market share of more than 80 percent.
"We are glad that the investment will help our local partners to further develop the flat-panel industry," Seah Long-seng (
The new plant, 3M Taiwan Optronics Corp, is located at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan. It is used to produce BEFs, dual BEFs, diffused reflective polarizer films and enhanced specular reflectors for various sizes of flat panels, including those used in LCD TVs and small handset displays.
For the first year of operation, the plant is expected to churn out 90,000m2 of film every month. The figure will increase to 200,000m2 per month next year, and 280,0002 per month in 2007.
3M plans to build another 200-ping factory next to the existing plant in 2007.
The two plants, along with personnel, equipment, research and development expenses, will cost the company about NT$1.2 billion (US$37.6 million), said Charles Chang (
Currently the new plant has 70 employees. 3M plans to hire 125 more by the end of the year, and another 370 by the end of next year, Chang said.
Setting up a BEF plant in the science park, which has a high concentration of LCD-related firms, has many advantages for 3M, such as the ability to deliver supplies to its local customers within 10 to 15 minutes, and to quickly adapt product consignments to customers' changing needs, Chang said.
The plant's proximity to its clients will also help reduce costs, which will enable 3M to cut prices as its capacity improves, Chang said. He refused to discuss the possible range of such price adjustments.
In addition to supplying local customers, Chang said, the company plans to meet surging demand in South Korea, Japan and China.
As most manufacturers of backlight modules have migrated to China, the factory in Tainan will focus on high-end products as well as research and development to create more value, he added.
Chen Chih-hao (陳志豪), an analyst at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券), said that 3M's investment can help develop the LCD supply chain in Taiwan, and benefit local major flat-panel makers such as AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) with reduced costs.
BEFs account for about 8 percent of the cost of making a LCD computer monitor, and about 7.5 percent of the cost of a LCD TV, which means that cheaper BEFs will have a considerable impact on panel prices, Chen said.
Meanwhile, 3M can also look forward to the peak Christmas season ahead. Shipments of LCD panels in the fourth quarter are expected to jump by about 50 percent from the same period last year, according to Capital Securities' estimate.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
RSS