AU Optronics establishes new manufacturing plant in Trencin, Slovak Republic

HSINCHU, TAIWAN: AU Optronics Corp. announced that in order to provide just-in-time services to European customers, AUO has established AU Optronics (Slovakia) s.r.o. in the Slovak Republic, located in the center of the European mainland, and plans to invest more than 191 million Euro starting from 2010.

As AUO's major European production base, AUO Slovakia will be responsible for manufacturing, assembling, and selling large-sized LCD modules. This investment is one of the biggest investment projects in the Slovak Republic since the financial turmoil in 2008.

AUO's Chairman, K.Y. Lee, and Lubomir Jahnatek, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, signed an investment agreement. Both of Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Dusan Caplovic and Representative of Taipei Representative Office, Bratislava, Chiun-Ming Chen, attended the ceremony to witness the meaningful moment.

K.Y. Lee noted during the signing ceremony that Europe is one of the major markets for LCD TVs. AUO also regards Europe as a market with high potential for growth for its green business. To provide clients direct and prompt supports, strengthen its global presence, and be closer to customers are the key considerations of this investment project.

Slovakia is located in the center of Europe and has joined eurozone since 2009. The country not only offers high quality and competitive human resources to enterprises, but also has stable economic development to drive the growth of GDP.

Lubomir Jahnatek, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, said: "AUO is a global leading TFT-LCD manufacturer. Slovakia warmly welcomes AUO to establish the manufacturing plant in the country. The production will be in the hi-tech field, which is in accordance with the Ministry of Economy's policy to prefer investments aimed at innovations, research and high technologies."

This new manufacturing facility of AU Optronics (Slovakia) is in Trencin city with a fab area of around 200,000 square meters. The production capacity will be increased based on customers' demand gradually. The initial product lines will be focused on large-sized LCD modules. Other component companies within the group may be added to the production site in the future.

AUO has LCM factories in Lungtan and Taichung, Taiwan, and Suzhou, Songjiang, and Xiamen, China, as well as in the Czech Republic. According to the product features and production capacity allocation, the global LCM facilities will support the global customers' orders respectively.

The establishment of the LCM fab in Slovakia is a significant milestone for AUO to deeply engage in the European market. The presence in Slovakia can also allow AUO to provide better customer services to global clients, and enable world-renowned TV set makers in neighboring European countries to improve their supply chain management of high quality LCD products.