Home appliance maker Tatung Co (??) plans to increase investment in the production of glass solar cells, riding on the rosy prospects of the solar energy industry, a top company official said yesterday.
Part of the plan will involve resource integration, with Tatung working with its subsidiaries Green Energy Technology Inc (????) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (????), as glass cells and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels share similarities in production, Tatung chairman Lin Wei-shan (???) told shareholders.
Green Energy is the nation’s largest manufacturer of solar photovoltaic multicrystalline silicon wafers, while Chunghwa Picture Tubes is the nation’s third-largest manufacturer of LCD panels.
Lin, who also doubles as Green Energy’s chairman, said that sales of Green Energy are forecast to surpass the NT$10 billion (US$300 million) mark next year, thanks to product diversification from silicon wafers and glass membrane solar cells to solar energy solutions.
Fueled by the red hot solar demand, Green Energy posted sales of NT$2.4 billion last year, a sharp 592 percent rise from NT$352.4 million a year ago. It also posted net profits of NT$506.8 million last year, compared with losses of NT$60.1 million a year earlier.
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