November 29, 2006 – Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is laying out plans that it hopes will support a doubling of production value for Taiwan’s flat-panel display (FPD) industry by 2009, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

The paper cited comments by Ho Mei-yueh, Minister-without-Portfolio and a former economics minister, who projected that three 7.5G facilities and one 8G facility are expected to come online in the next three years, hiking the annual production value of the island’s FPD output to around $48.78 billion, up from $28.26 billion in 2005. Taiwan had 11 5G-6G TFT-LCD facilities as of last year, the paper noted.

Local equipment suppliers are lining up plans to benefit from the surge, noted the paper. C Sun Manufacturing Ltd. plans to invest $18.3 million in the first stage of construction for a plant to produce equipment such as TFT-LCD hot-air ovens for seal post cure and high/low temperature hot-plate ovens, an expansion of local suppliers’ previous offerings of rear-section or conveying equipment. The company also plans to offer other optoelectronic manufacturing equipment such as UV aging machines and color-filter bakers.

Tera Autotech Corp. recently won business from Taiwan’s top TFT-LCD panel maker, AU Optronics Corp., for its new 7.5G TFT-LCD panel material-inventory and conveying system, and expects to ramp up operations to tap the markets in Taiwan and China, the paper noted. Pilot production has already begun at Tera’s facility in the Central Taiwan Science Park.

MOEA’s FPD industry development plan

2005:
– Annual production value of NT$927 billion
– A total of 11 5G-6G TFT-LCD panel plants on the island

2009:
– Production value of NT$600 billion
– A total of 13 5G-6G, three 7.5G, and one 8G TFT-LCD panel plants
– Taiwan becomes the world’s most-important FPD R&D and manufacturing citadel
– World’s major supply nation of wet and baking production-process equipment

Source: Taiwan Economic News, Minister without Portfolio Ho Mei-yueh