Chinese optics company receives approval for production expansion
Global-Tech Appliances announced approval for a capital appropriation for its wholly owned subsidiary, Global Optics Limited ("GOL"), in order to expand GOL's complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera module (CCM) manufacturing facility in Dongguan, China.
This expansion is expected to enable GOL to increase production capacity to meet anticipated demand and also to maintain levels of customer service for its existing and new CCM customers.Pursuant to the expansion plan, GOL plans to more than double the size of the current clean room and install additional production lines and surface-mount technology (SMT) machines during the months ahead. Upon completion, the Company expects the expansion to increase the total monthly CCM production capacity to approximately 1.6 million units by March 31, 2008.
John C.K. Sham, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We have established approved vendor status with four major customers in China that we expect will order, in aggregate, between 400,000 and 600,000 units of our CCMs per month. One of these customers is a major brand in China and completed an extensive evaluation of our quality control and systems procedures prior to placing their initial order. We also continue to support many regional cellular phone manufacturers in China who have specified our CCMs and programmed their software solutions to operate them."
Mr. Sham continued, "Our solid backlog and forecasts from our existing customers convinced us that it was necessary to invest in additional production capacity to maintain our current CCM business and to have sufficient capacity to support further growth in our customer base. Although we do not expect to utilise our expanded production capacity in its entirety this fiscal year, the expansion is intended to support annualized CCM sales of approximately $50 million at current selling prices by the end of this fiscal year."
Mr. Sham concluded, "In order to sustain our momentum and further grow the CCM business, we also plan to expand our product line and features. We have commenced delivery of recently received orders for our newly developed auto-macro CCM and have started to export our CCMs to cellular phone manufacturers in Japan and Singapore. Additionally, in order to help maintain our position in the marketplace, we have also added electronic and process engineers in China to expand our product development program to incorporate new features and enhancements in our CCM products."
