BenQ Corp (明基) said yesterday that it planned to gradually downsize two cellphone plants in Taiwan and reduce its workforce in Europe as part of a greater restructuring project aimed at reversing its massive losses since taking over Siemens AG's handset unit.
"This is part of our restructuring plan. We plan to move our mobile phone manufacturing over time to a Chinese factory," BenQ spokesman Eric Yu (游克用) said in a telephone interview.
Yu said the Taoyuan factory would be transformed into a handset research and development center by the end of the year.
Yu's remarks came amid market speculation that the company is struggling to rein in costs and attract consumers with its handsets.
BenQ's restructuring plan is to spin off its non-handset manufacturing units from the brandname business, chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) told investors last month.
In the initial stage, more than 100 employees would leave their jobs by the end of the year, or about one-fifth of the workforce in its Taoyuan plants, Yu said.
BenQ is also encouraging its Taiwanese staff to work in other manufacturing sites, Yu said. It also plans to sell equipment, he said, without giving further details.
However, it has no plan to sell all of its manufacturing facilities and equipment in Europe and China, Yu said, dismissing a report by Germany's Manager Magazine that BenQ plans to sell its entire mobile-phone manufacturing operations.
"We will sell extra equipment to optimize our manufacturing," Yu said.
He said he was not clear about weather BenQ Mobile was in talks with Foxconn International Holdings, or other companies.
Manager Magazine reported yesterday that BenQ is in talks to sell its mobile-phone factories in Asia and Europe to cellular phone contract makers Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股) of Taiwan and Jabil Circuit Inc of the US.
BenQ, which took over Siemens AG's unprofitable handset division last year, said last month it won't meet a goal of returning the handset unit to profit this year because some new models were delayed.
BenQ already said that it aims to shut down the cellphone manufacturing operations at a plant in Mexico.
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