AUO Kunshan plant delays equipment move-in plan

Core Tip: The capacity addition of AUO (AUO) Kunshan, a display manufacturer in Taiwan, failed to proceed as scheduled. Another Taiwan-funded company, Hannstar (HannStar Caijing), also delayed its equipment investment plan.
The capacity addition of AUO (AUO), a display manufacturer in Taiwan, Kunshan, failed to proceed as scheduled. Another Taiwan-funded company, Hannstar (HannStar Caijing), also delayed its equipment investment plan.

According to foreign media reports on May 30, AUO originally planned to increase equipment for the expansion of low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) liquid crystal display (LCD) production capacity in Kunshan, but the related schedule was postponed due to the epidemic control.

Due to the epidemic control policy, the production equipment could not be moved in on time. The AUO said it was working hard to prepare for recovery of the affected progress after the lockdown was lifted.

Previously, AUO planned to increase the current monthly production capacity of glass substrates from 27,000 to 28,000 sheets to 36,000 sheets per month. After that, it is planned to increase the average monthly production capacity to 45,000 sheets according to market conditions.

AUO will also add an 8.5-generation LCD production line in Taiwan, which is expected to start production as early as 2025. The scale of investment related to this is expected to be 100 billion to 150 billion Taiwan dollars. It is reported that the factory will not only mainly produce panels for LTPS and information and communication equipment, but also Micro LED panels.

In addition, Hannstar invested 17 billion Taiwan dollars in July last year to build a factory with a monthly production capacity of 30,000 glass substrates, and plans to start production as soon as 2023.

However, Wu Xuhao, vice president of Hannstar, said: "Affected by global inflation and the decline in global demand for home appliances, we will postpone the originally planned investment," adding: "Considering the macroeconomic conditions, the equipment investment budget will be readjusted in the second half of this year. ."