Taipei - Taiwan's Compal Electronics said on Monday that it will maintain its notebook computer production base in China while launching a new production base in Vietnam. Compal Vice President Lu Ching-hsiung denied a newspaper report which said Compal plans to shift its notebook computer production entirely from China to Vietnam due to China's reducing incentives to foreign investors.
A Compal official said that since all of Compal's notebook computer production is in Kunshan, a city near Shanghai, some customers have suggested Compal diversify its production risks.
Compal has 20,000 workers in its three notebook computer plants in Kunshan.
"So while maintaining our production in China, we are also building a plant in Vietnam," the official said, adding that the company plans to to have notebook computer output divided between China and Vietnam in five years.
Compal, a leading contract manufacturer for international brand- name notebook computers, turned out 22.6 million notebook computers in 2007, up 56 per cent year-on-year.
Compal's Vietnam plant is scheduled to begin trial production in the fourth quarter of 2008. By the end of 2009, the Vietnam plant is scheduled to assembly one million notebook computers each month.
Set up in 1984, Combal has customers in Taiwan, China, North America and the United Kingdom.
