Premier Liu Chao-Shiuan Visited Motech to highlight New Energy Industry Plan
Following the passage of the Flagship Plan for the New Energy Industry on Thursday, April 23, 2009, Premier Liu Chao-Shiuan visited Motech Industries, Inc. (the “Company” or Motech) and exchanged views with Motech’s Chairman Dr. Simon Tsuo on industry fundamentals, current bottlenecks and government incentive plans. During the meeting with Premier Liu, Dr. Tsuo also provided suggestions to the government’s New Energy Industry Plan.
Motech first founded the unique business model of dedicated solar cell manufacturing in Taiwan back in 1999 when the solar industry was still at its infant age, successfully penetrating the market originally monopolized by a few fully-integrated players. The unique business model set an example followed by numerous new entrants wishing to enter the solar industry. However, during a recent cross-strait photovoltaic forum, Dr. Tsuo pointed out the potential risks of Taiwanese solar firms focusing primarily on cell and wafer manufacturing with limited presence in both the upstream raw material market and the downstream application market.
Despite holding an important position in the supply chain of the global solar industry, Taiwan lags behind in the development of a domestic consumer market for solar applications. In consideration of this, the Executive Yuan has given the green energy industry development priority, focusing on promoting domestic demand and key investments in the supply chain to facilitate the development of Taiwan’s new energy industry.
Even though major international competitors are beginning to slow down the pace of expansion due to frozen end-market demands caused by the global finance crisis, the Company still holds an optimistic view as to the long-term growth aspect of the solar industry. Unlike cost cutting measures, such as no-pay leaves, being implemented by local semiconductor and high-tech firms, the Company is taking a more progressive approach of recruiting talented workers released by those firms, thus enlisting valuable human resources into a promising industry. The Company plans to increase its total annualized production capacity from last year’s 450 MW to 600 MW in 2009, while total output is expected to increase from 272 MW in 2008 to 400 MW in 2009. The number of employees is expected to grow from 1,211 in 2008 to over 1,500 in 2009.
Source: Motech
