Auto parts maker Mobiletron Electronics Co (車王電子) and its subsidiary RAC Electric Vehicles Inc (華德動能) on Saturday held a beam-raising ceremony at their new manufacturing plant in the Port of Taichung Export Processing Zone (中港加工區).
With a NT$2.5 billion (US$84.43 million) investment, the new plant is to be a smart manufacturing base for electric vehicles, the Export Processing Zone Administration (EPZA) said in a statement on the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Web site.
The plant, which occupies 2.07 hectares, is expected to install manufacturing equipment for a trial production to start in the first half of next year, the administration said.
The plant is estimated to provide 800 job opportunities after it starts mass production in the second half of next year, and is expected to boost domestic development of electric buses and energy storage systems, it said.
Mobiletron, headquartered in Taichung’s Daya District (大雅), early last year announced the investment plan, and the ministry in March last year approved it to join a three-year investment program, under which the government provides returning firms with assistance on taxation, financing, land, utilities and labor.
The company, which manufactures battery management systems for vehicles, has in the past few years focused on developing driver assistance systems, energy storage systems and electric buses.
Although it has production facilities in Taiwan and China, as well as sales offices in the US and Europe, it has gradually relocated some high-margin production lines to Taiwan, to increase manufacturing capacity and diversify risk amid a US-China trade dispute.
Mobiletron reported cumulative revenue of NT$895.49 million for the first five months of the year, down 20.75 percent from a year earlier. Net profit for the first quarter was NT$10.44 million, down from NT$40.51 million a year earlier. Earnings per share declined from NT$0.41 to NT$0.11.
Mobiletron chairman Kim Tsai (蔡裕慶), EPZA director-general Huang Wen-guu (黃文谷) and EPZA Port of Taichung branch director Liang You-wen (梁又文) attended the ceremony, the ministry said.
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