Earlier, Abit had moved two SMT lines to Rolly, raising the plant's monthly capacity to around 140,000 units. However, the figure is far smaller than the number of orders Abit received for September. To fill the capacity shortage, Abit has to continue manufacturing some products in its Taoyuan factory and outsource part of its production to other contract makers.
As the company has decided to gradually move its motherboard and graphics card production to the Rolly plant, company president Edwin Lin said that Abit is planning to add two to three SMT lines there by year-end to ensure sufficient capacity for the future.
Abit estimated that it will ship a total of 200,000 to 250,000 motherboards in September.
Abit's current tight capacity has been due to its rising shipments to Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Singapore-based EMS (electronics manufacturing service) company Flextronics, as well as the pressed production schedule to accommodate the upcoming national holidays, beginning October 1 through October 7, in China.
Besides Abit, companies like Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), Micro-Star International (MSI), Chaintech Computer, Jetway Information and Acorp Electronics have all reported tight capacity because of the seven-day holidays as well. Board makers said that although production will not necessarily be disrupted by the holidays, shipments will be detained at customs. As a result, they need to manufacture more products for part of their October orders in advance, making the problem of tight capacity even more strongly felt.
Source: DigiTimes