Contract electronics manufacturer Wistron Corp (緯創) plans to invest about NT$11.1 billion (US$400.58 million) in Taiwan, in line with its global deployment strategy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday.
The company’s investment is also a demonstration of robust demand for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things applications, the ministry said in a statement.
Wistron, spun off from Acer Inc (宏碁) in 2001, is a notebook computer original design manufacturing partner to major PC brands. The company, which is based in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), also produces servers, data storage devices, game consoles and communications products for brand clients on a contract basis.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In the past few years, the company has expanded its business scope to provide technical service platforms and solutions, covering education, medical and corporate services.
Worldwide, Wistron has 12 manufacturing bases, 10 research and development centers, and 14 customer service centers, the ministry said.
Wistron plans to build a new plant at the International AI Smart Park (國際AI智慧園區) in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北) to establish production lines for AI, 5G, server and computing products, it said.
“The company expects to seize market opportunities from the new wave of technology,” the ministry said. “It also aims to create employment opportunities for thousands of [people with] tech talent [in Taiwan].”
Wistron on Wednesday reported consolidated revenue of NT$70.28 billion for last month, up 4.08 percent from July and up 0.38 percent from the same month last year.
Shipments of notebook computers last month increased by 100,000 units from the previous month to 2.1 million units, desktop computer shipments were flat at 700,000 units and monitor shipments increased by 200,000 units to 1.4 million units, the company said.
Cumulative revenue in the first eight months of the year decreased 5.03 percent annually to NT$51.6 billion, it said.
Wistron said its outlook for orders for the fourth quarter of this year is not pessimistic, but a shortage of materials still exists, and the global COVID-19 situation is difficult to predict.
Given global uncertainty over the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 and key component shortages along its supply chain, the company said that it was cautiously optimistic about its outlook for this month and this quarter.
Wistron was one of five local companies that the ministry approved last week to join the government’s three-year action plan for domestic investment. The others were Great Biomaterials Co (大環淨生物科技材料), TopGiga Material Corp (鎧暘科技) and Solar Bus (日統汽車客運).
It is also one of 991 companies granted ministry approval — for an investment total of NT$1.336 trillion — since the government launched incentive programs at the beginning of 2019.
The firms’ investments are expected to provide 113,405 jobs, while another 48 firms are awaiting approval, the ministry said.
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