Taiwanese company expands Laguna manufacturing facility
By Charmaine A. Tadalan, Reporter
TAIPEI — Taiwanese power supply firm AcBel Polytech, Inc. is set to expand not just its manufacturing facility in Taiwan, but also its factory in Laguna, Philippines, which is expected to be completed within the first half of 2020.
“We are expanding our Taiwan facility. We are estimating to increase at least double capacity and also in the Philippines,” AcBel Product Marketing Director Johnny Ho said during the Taitronics 2019 pre-show media tour in Taiwan, Tuesday.
AcBel, a power management solutions company, is expanding its operations, in response to increased demand from customers affected by the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.
“Right now our capacity usage are already 85%, so we only have 15% margin. It’s not enough. We are foreseeing until Q3, it’s not enough. That’s the reason why we pulled out another plan and begin developing the facility and all the setup and be ready for next year, Q1 or Q2,” Mr. Ho said.
The company’s Laguna facility largely manufactures storage devices and adapters, such as chargers. It currently employs around 1,890 workers.
With the expansion, Mr. Ho said the facility will require almost 3,000 workers.
He said the Laguna facility will also add research and development, and design units. “We are including in the expansion the design center, there will be an R&D and design center,” he added.
The AcBel official estimated the expansion in Taiwan and the Philippines will cost around NT$1.5 billion to 2 billion(P2.47 billion to 3.30 billion).
Having already established a global plant, Mr. Ho said AcBel saw an opportunity to expand amid the trade war that saw an increase in tariffs imposed on Chinese goods exported to the United States and threat of a further hike in tariffs.
“The advantage is we have facilities outside of China; because of tariff, that gave us more opportunities and there’s very few power supply company that have options, facility outside of China,” he said.
However, the company’s expansion plan will not include its manufacturing facilities in China.
AcBel will be among the participants of this year’s Taipei International Electronics show, Taitronics, which will be held from Oct. 16-18.
AcBel is one of the nine publicly listed companies under the New Kinpo Group. Its market include Lenovo, Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Philips, Toshiba, among others.
