LCD panelmaker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) is planning to invest NT$91.08 billion (US$3.26 million) over the next few years to expand its capacity to domestically produce panels used in premium notebook computers, the Hsinchu-based company said on Tuesday.
The investment would be part of the company’s efforts to boost production resilience and safeguard market share, AUO said in a statement.
It aims to increase capacity at its 8.5-generation and 6-generation plants in Taichung, and produce more panels with advanced hyper viewing angle technology to satisfy prospective rising demand in the post-COVID-19 era, it said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
AUO also plans to spend NT$10 billion a year on the development of cutting-edge technologies and the enhancement of manufacturing capabilities, it said.
The panel maker has about 20,000 employees nationwide and is planning to create 2,700 new jobs, according to its four-year investment plan.
AUO also plans to expand panel manufacturing capacity in China to make low-temperature-poly-silicon panels (LTPS) used in high-end notebook computers, it said.
The company last quarter commanded about 60 to 70 percent of the world’s LTPS panel market, it said.
AUO on Tuesday received approval from the Investment Commission to invest US$617 million in its Chinese subsidiary in Kunshan, which would allow it to fully take over the subsidiary, of which it currently owns 51 percent, it said.
The commission also approved another US$384 million investment in the subsidiary, which would be used to expand the unit’s output to 47,000 units per month, it said.
“Given that the planned investment in Taiwan clearly exceeds the investment in China, we decided to approve AUO’s investment there,” the commission said. “As the Chinese subsidiary would handle simple manufacturing, we estimate that the risk of technology leakage is minimal.”
The commission also approved a China-bound investment of US$115 million by KGI Bank (凱基銀行), a subsidiary of China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), to develop its consumer financial business in the nation.
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
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
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
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS