AIDC to produce FPD equipment with AKT technology support

Taipei, April 20, 2004 (CENS)--The Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC), Taiwan's largest aircraft maker, recently won technical transfers from Applied Komatsu Technology Inc. (AKT) of the U.S. for the production of flat panel display (FPD)-relevant equipment and key parts.

Although a state-run aerospace maker, AIDC has seen a great part of its manufacturing capacity remain idle due to the government's decision to procure hundreds of jet fighters from the U.S. and France rather instead of local suppliers. The aircraft maker has been aggressively trying to diversify its product lines in recent years and has achieved some results in precision equipment, medical equipment and other precision machining parts production.

AIDC said that part of its production lines have been certified by AKT for the production of FPD-relevant products. AIDC decided to venture into the new business field about one year ago.

AKT, which has decided to set up an R&D center in Taiwan, chose AIDC as its partner after a series of intensive evaluation on several possible cooperation targets on the island. AKT decided to cooperate with AIDC as the aerospace maker owns strong manufacturing capability and big plants for producing giant-sized FPD production equipment and key parts, industry sources said.

With limited experiences, AIDC said that it encountered many challenges in the initial stage of entering the new line but has overcome them with strenuous efforts and accumulated expertise in developing big machinery models before.

In a bid to tackle the problems of limited equipment and production scale for the FPD-relevant equipment and parts, AIDC said that it has mapped out plans to further expand investments in equipment and retooling production lines.

AKT, a 50-50 joint venture between Applied Materials of the U.S. and Japan's Komatsu Ltd., is currently the world's No. 1 supplier of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel production equipment, commanding over 80% of the global supply of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment.

AKT began tapping the Taiwan TFt-LCD equipment market in 196 and set up a subsidiary on the island in 2000, which currently supplies products to all of the five large-sized TFT-LCD panel makers in Taiwan. AKT has also maintained cooperation ties with the Electronics Research & Service Organization and Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories of local Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Industry sources pointed out that AKT's active deployment in Taiwan showed the company's intention to find local cooperation partners, seek direct access to local customers, and gradually develop its equipment and parts production business in Taiwan.