Due to operating difficulties, Wistron, the world’s third largest notebook computer OEM, announced on the evening of April 20 that its Taizhou plant in mainland China will close on April 26 due to successive years of losses. Work and production will be suspended, and the labor contract will be terminated with all employees on May 26, and economic compensation will be paid as required.
Wistron Information Technology Co., Ltd. stated in the announcement that due to changes in the overall economic and trade situation and customer needs, the company has gradually adjusted its global production capacity layout in recent years. The Taizhou factory has been losing money for years because it has not reached the economic scale. business.
According to Times Finance, a field visit to the Wistron Taizhou factory found that the factory is currently showing a scene of “people go to the factory and the factory is empty”. There was almost no one inside or outside the factory, only a security guard was on duty at the main entrance. The busy staff dormitories and commercial districts have also become deserted. The restaurant owner said that their business depends on Wistron’s employees, and now that everyone has left, their business has declined.
It is understood that the Wistron Taizhou factory mainly produces small and medium-sized LCD modules, and is the LCD module OEM of JDI (Japan Display Inc), an iPhone LCD panel supplier. However, in recent years, Apple has gradually shifted to using OLED screens, resulting in reduced orders and increased losses at Wistron’s Taizhou factory. Financial data show that as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, the book value of the investment in Wistron’s Taizhou factory was a loss of NT$5.555 billion.
Wistron said that they are optimizing the global production capacity layout and will transfer the business of the Taizhou factory to Kunshan and other places. Regarding the placement of employees, Wistron said it would try its best to deal with it in the best possible way and provide economic compensation. However, according to employees, since most of the employees are locals from Taizhou, they are more inclined to leave rather than follow the company.
