Wistron speeds up building NB PC plant in China
Wistron Corp., the world's third-largest contract manufacturer of NB PCs, is expediting the building of the second factory in Taizhou Development Park of Jiangsu province, China by remitting US$21 million to China. Construction of the plant began at the end of September.
With total investments of US$17.1 million, the plant is backed by Wistron, Catcher Technology Corp., Taiwan's leading manufacturer of magnesium-aluminum NB casing, and Ju Teng International Holding Co., a leading manufacturer of plastic NB casing.
To meet the anticipated recovery of the NB industry worldwide, a market insider predicted Wistron will start mass production at the Taizhou plant in March 2010, which Wistron denies by saying the date is to be sometime in the fourth quarter of next year, also adding that inauguration may be earlier than scheduled if construction goes smoothly.
The proposed plant is to have a monthly production capacity of one million NBs, which will be raised to six million by 2012.
Wistron president H.M. Lin said the Taizhou plant will focus on the production of NBs initially, with the line to be expanded according to industrial changes.
In addition to Wistron, other leading domestic manufacturers in this field, including Compal Electronics Corp. and Quanta Computer Inc., are also prepared to expand production capacity in China.
Compal president J.T. Chen says that the NB industry will last another three to five years, with the NB sector destined to outpace the desktop PC sector this year.
