Makers of passive electronic devices speed up production across Taiwan Strait

Taipei, Nov. 21, 2003 (CENS)--Taiwan's leading manufacturers of passive electronic components, including Yageo Corporation, Walsin Technology Corp., and Ta-I Technology Co., are scrambling to expand production capacities in mainland China and Taiwan.

Yageo, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of passive electronic components, will invest US$70 million to expand its plant in Suzhou of Jiangsu Province; Walsin will inaugurate a full-line production facility of multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) in the beginning of next year; Ta-I will expand the production capacities of chip-based resistors in Taiwan's Taoyuan County and mainland's Suzhou.

Due to increased market demand the world over, many domestic manufacturers in this line have seen production equipment utilization rate reach a high of 90%, and they are busy with launching expansion of production capacities. They will expand production capacity across the Taiwan Strait to meet the demand of the fast-growing mainland electronics industry.

Yageo will post US$100 million in capital expenditure to support its production expansion across the Taiwan Strait next year, half of which will be used in expanding the Suzhou plant.

Lee Wei-cheng, president of Yageo mainland China, said many world-class manufacturers of electronic components have relocated production facilities to the mainland over the past few years in view of the booming demand of mainland's massive domestic market.

Lee said his company has raised the ratio of sales to the mainland to 32% from a mere 15% two years ago, and the ratio will climb to 40% next year.

Walsin said it would inaugurate its first integrated production line of MLCCs in the mainland early next year. The inauguration of the integrated production line will help it shorten the time of delivery to downstream customers in the mainland.

Ta-I is expected to commence mass production of chip-based resistors at its integrated plant in Suzhou sometime in the second half of next year. The company anticipated it would be able to raise monthly output to 10 billion chip-based resistors next year from existing eight billion ones.