Unitech Printed Circuit Board to build solar cell factory in Yilan, Taiwan
Jun 01, 2007
Source: EMSNow.com (source & copyright: CENS )
http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?id=26996
According to administration of a high-tech industrial park in Yilan County of eastern Taiwan, printed-circuit board maker Unitech Printed Circuit Board Corp. (UPCB) already submitted an application for a land on the park for its planned solar-cell factory. The administration and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) recently confirmed reports that the PCB maker will venture into solar-cell manufacturing and already applied for a 15,000-ping (540,000 square feet at one ping equals to 36 sq. ft.) site on the park to build the factory.
UPCB will hold a director board meeting in mid-June to approve the investment plan and construction will likely kick off in November this year. The factory is planned to start volume production in the third quarter next year at earliest, with initial output set at 30 megawatts of cells a year. The investment is projected to inject NT$3 billion (US$90 million at US$1:NT$33) into UPCB`s revenue a year with NT$1 billion (US$30 million) spent on equipment.
Taiwanese industry watchers pointed out that the company would likely license technology from Centrotherm, Roth & Rau, or Schmid, all of them German companies. Also, the Taiwan company will likely source polysilicon wafers, the major materials for making the cells, from Germany. Solar-cell equipment suppliers pointed out that UPCB had been assessing the business for a while and organized a solar-technology team within it. In addition, the company, they added, had approached some equipment suppliers.
Taiwanese industry watchers pointed out PCB makers tend to enter solar-cell turf because PCB manufacturing shares many common processes with solar-cell manufacturing. In addition, shrunk profits in handset PCB manufacturing are another momentum driving PCB makers to locate profitable business like solar cells. UPCB estimated its revenue for last and this months would maintain at NT$800 million (US$24 million) and its revenue for second quarter this year would be NT$2.4 billion (US$73 million), slipping 5% from first quarter`s NT$2.5 billion (US$77 million).
Currently, all international mobile-phone heavyweights but Nokia are UPCB`s customers, making it the most steady maker of the top four Taiwanese handset-PCB makers in terms of sales. The other three are COMPEQ Manufacturing Corp., WUS Printed Circuit Co., Ltd. and Unimicron Technology Corp.
Last quarter, lukewarm sales in Motorola adversely affected sales of the four Taiwanese board suppliers. However, UPCB still made NT$1.12 per share after tax thanks to cost-efficient measures.
In addition to UPCB, Taiwan Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (TSC) is also reported to build a solar-cell factory on the Yilan park.
While diversifying into the new field, UPCB is also expanding core-business capacity. The company said its 100%-owned subsidiary-Shanghai Unitech Electronics Co.-is increasingly installing production equipment to expand output at its second plant in Shanghai. The plant will double output to 500,000 square feet of PCBs from current 250,000 square feet this quarter. The plant will launch a new round of production expansion project sometime this half.