Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corporation

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Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corporation

1 Chi-Yeh Road
Tainan Science Based Ind'l Park
Tainan
Taiwan
Telephone: 886 6 505 1888
Fax: 886 6 505 1800
Web site: http://www.cmo.com.tw

Public Subsidiary of Chi Mei Group
Incorporated: 1998
Employees: 12,400
Sales: $3.21 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: Taiwan
Ticker Symbol: CMO
NAIC: 334419 Other Electronic Component Manufacturing

Established only in 1998, Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corporation (CMO) is one of the world's leading manufacturers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays, better known as TFT-LCD flat-panel displays. The company produces more than 4.5 million flat-panel displays per year, and expects to top five million panels annually before 2006. CMO operates four LCM (liquid crystal display module) plants in Taiwan's Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). That complex was subsidized by the Taiwanese government as part of its decision to make LCD displays one of the island's key manufacturing areas. The company's production operations include a 5.5G (generation) plant for production of 27-inch displays and a 6.0G plant for production of 32-inch displays. In 2005, CMO announced its intention to open an LCM plant in mainland China, in part because of a labor shortage in Taiwan. The opening of that plant will help CMO reclaim the industry's top spot from chief rival AU Optronics. In addition to TFT-LCDs, CMO has been developing its own organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display capacity; the company also produces color filters. Chairman and founder Hsu Wen-lung, who suffered criticism from Beijing because of his support for Taiwan's independence-minded government, stepped down from his position in 2005 as part of the company's decision to enter the mainland. CMO is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange but remains controlled by Chi Mei Group, a petrochemicals conglomerate established by Hsu's father in 1950.

Made in Taiwan in the 1950s

Few companies so closely mirrored Taiwan's evolution in the second half of the 20th century as Chi Mei Group and its publicly listed subsidiary Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). Taiwan's economy was virtually non-existent at the end of the 1940s, as the newly established government set out to convert itself from a predominantly agrarian base. The country turned toward the industrial sector, investing heavily to begin producing low-cost, and often low-quality, consumer items. With low wages and a vast workforce, Taiwan quickly became a source for discount goods the world over.

Chi Mei played a major role in this transition. The company originally focused on the retail sector, and was founded as a small children's clothing store by Shu-Ho Shi in 1950. Shu chose the name Chi Mei, from the Chinese words for "Unique Beauty," for his store. Yet Chi Mei's focus quickly expanded beyond retail sales.

A number of factors converged in the early 1950s to present a major opportunity for the company. Taiwan's interest in developing its industrial sector, as well as the strong role the government played in directing the country's economic and corporate policy, created a fertile environment for a new breed of entrepreneurs. At the same time, the development of new plastic technologies had opened up an extraordinarily large range of production possibilities. The timing for the new materials was perfect; the Western world was undergoing a period of sustained economic growth. The booming economies of the West not only created unprecedented levels of disposable income, but also steady advances in leisure time. Yet another factor came into play in the 1950s and 1960s: with more and more women joining the workforce, families began to shrink in size. Fewer children meant that parents were willing to spend more on each individual child, stimulating a surge in demand for children's toys. Meanwhile, the use of plastics opened up a whole new range of potential shapes and colors, introducing one of the most creative eras of toy-making ever known.

Chi Mei entered the children's toy market in 1953, setting up Chi Mei with its own manufacturing plant. The initial facility was quite modest, occupying just 26 square meters, manned by four employees. The company began producing toys and other household items, and the words "Made in Taiwan" quickly became ubiquitous throughout the Western world. Shu was joined by son Hsu Wen-lung, who became the driving force behind the company's conversion into an industrial powerhouse.

By the late 1950s, however, Chi Mei had recognized a greater opportunity in producing the basic plastics materials themselves. In 1957, the company launched a research and development effort in order to establish its own methods for the production of acrylic sheets. This led to the creation of a new subsidiary, Chi Mei Industrial Co., led by Hsu Wen-lung. The company built a new industrial complex at Yen Chen Tainan, and launched production in 1960.

Chi Mei brought its acrylic sheets to the export market in 1963. Soon after the company launched production of one of its most successful products, Kibi Board, plywood sheets coated with decorative paper, sealed under a layer of polyester resin. By 1967, the company had developed a second, similar product, Mega Board, which differed from Kibi Board in that it was coated with an aminoalkyd resin. By then, too, the company also had begun to produce buttons, starting in 1964, and quickly became one of the world's leading suppliers of buttons.

The success of its finished products enabled Chi Mei to begin its transformation into one of Taiwan's leading petrochemicals groups toward the end of the 1960s. This effort began in 1965, with the creation of the company's first technology transfer joint venture with Mitsubishi. The following year, Chi Mei launched a new research and development effort to build expertise in the production of expandable polystyrene (EPS). In 1968, Chi Mei turned to Mitsubishi again for technology, forming a new joint venture for the production of a larger range of polystyrene types, including general purpose polystyrene and high-impact polystyrene resins.

By the early 1970s, Chi Mei had established its first overseas plant, in the Philippines. The company's polystyrene operations also became its largest component, topping its acrylic sheets sales by the middle of the decade. Through the next decade, the company continued to develop new plastics and petrochemicals capacity, becoming a leading producer of acrylic granulates and acrylic extrusion sheets. Into the 1990s, Chi Mei expanded its technology to include production of TPE rubber and other plastics. By then, the company had, in large part, exited its former finished goods production, dropping buttons in 1982 and both the Kibi and Mega Boards in 1985.

TFT-LCD Leader in the 2000s

By the mid-1990s, however, Taiwan faced increasing competitive pressure from other emerging, low-cost markets. The country's relatively high wages meant that it increasingly was unable to compete against the growing industrial strength of the developing markets. The gradual emergence of mainland China as a low-cost consumer goods producer especially promised to transform the industrial landscape on a global scale.

In recognition of the shifting situation, the Taiwanese government began encouraging the transformation of its economy toward higher-end technological sectors. Into the mid-1990s, the TFT-LCD market had becoming one of the most promising of the high-tech growth markets. The development of new generations of portable telephones, the promise of digital cameras, and the increasing development of portable computers as a consumer and even household appliance, but especially the development of the first generation of LCD-based televisions, encouraged the Taiwanese government to target that sector for its new technology initiatives.

Another factor played a role in Taiwan's development as a center for world TFT-LCD production. Liquid crystals had been discovered as early as 1888 by Friedrich Reinitzer, a botanist in Austria. Yet the first practical application of liquid crystals did not take place until the late 1960s, when the United States' RCA launched the first display utilizing LCD technology. During the 1970s, however, the center of LCD technology shifted to Japan, and the country emerged as the global center for LCD production. The Japanese jealously guarded their technology, maintaining control of the market into the late 1990s.

Yet the collapse of the Japanese economy during the decade left the country's TFT-LCD manufacturers cash-strapped just at a time when the world saw a surge in demand for TFT-LCD displays. In order to ensure the continued growth in production, the Japanese manufacturers began seeking joint ventures elsewhere, in South Korea and especially Taiwan. There, the Japanese companies found a ready list of cash-rich companies willing to enter TFT-LCD production.

Chi Mei decided to enter the market in 1997, setting up operations for the production of color filters, under Chi Mei Electronics (CME), and TFT-LCD displays, under Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). By 1998, the company had signed on its first technology partner, Fujitsu, which entered into an alliance with CME. This was soon followed by the group's first TFT-LCD partnership, again with Fujitsu. By 1999, CMO and Fujitsu had strengthened their partnership to include an agreement to co-develop new large-screen LCD technologies. Chi Mei also began production of LCD monitors, under a new subsidiary set up that year, Arch Technology Inc. By the end of that year, as well, CMO had succeeded in producing 14-inch TFT-LCD panels. This led the company to sign a new long-term development supply alliance with Dell Computer.

Company Perspectives:

Mission Statement: Business as a Way to Pursue Fulfillment. Human Management and Harmony are the most important and have been the operating principles of the whole Chi Mei Group.

CMO took over the operations of CME in 2000 as the company geared up its vertical integration model, an important part of its strategy for its future display technologies growth. The company also was gaining expertise in large-sized panels, launching its first 18-inch display panel early the next year.

The year 2001 marked a new milestone for CMO's development into one of the world's leading producers of TFT-LCD panels. In August of that year, the company agreed to take over IBM of Japan's Yasu Industrial Complex, acquiring not only its Japanese production capacity, but especially its technology. This acquisition led the company to focus on its panel display development, selling off the consumer-oriented Arch Technology.

By 2002, CMO had unveiled its first 30-inch TFT-LCD television display. In that year, CMO went public, the first member of the Chi Mei Group to do so. By then, CMO had become the motor for Chi Mei's overall growth, serving as the group's largest revenue generator.

The maturation of Taiwan's LCD industry was clearly in place in the early 2000s. Not only had the island become the center of worldwide LCD production, boasting most of the world's top five producers, the country also had emerged as a leading technological center. This development was highlighted by CMO's announcement in 2003 that it had decided to develop its own color-filter technology for new generation display panels, becoming the first of the big six Taiwanese producers to set up its own color filter facilities.

CMO launched a new fifth-generation production facility in 2003, and began preparations to open a sixth generation and seventh generation plant at mid-decade. By 2005, the company had developed its expertise in the production of panels up to 32 inches in size. This led the company to reach an agreement with Sony Corporation to sell its 3G plant in Japan in 2004.

CMO remained the last of the major Taiwanese LCD producers to enter the mainland Chinese market, in part because of founder and Chairman Hsu Wen-lung's open support for Taiwan President Chen Shui-ban. Yet difficulties in recruiting new workers, especially the lower wages of the Chinese mainland, left CMO in a vulnerable position vis-à-vis its competitors.

When CMO launched plans to develop production capacity in the mainland, however, it found itself in the middle of the political battle being waged between Beijing and Taiwan. After the Chinese government's newspaper, the People's Daily, branded Hsu as "a shameless anti-Chinese bigot," and further indicated that the country would not welcome "these sort of Taiwanese business people," Hsu conceded defeat and resigned from his post as chairman of CMO. Then in 2005, Hsu gave a speech in which he publicly stated that Taiwan and the mainland were part of "one" China. Soon afterward, CMO received permission to build its first LCD module plant in China. The move was expected to help the company reclaim its title as industry leader, which was captured by rival AU Optronics in August of that year. From toy maker to global technological leader, Chi Mei, with its publicly listed subsidiary CMO, had established itself as a quintessential member of Taiwan's industrial community.

Principal Subsidiaries

International Display Technology Ltd.

Principal Competitors

Samsung Corporation; LG-Philips; Sharp Corporation; AU Optronics; Chungwha Picture Tubes, Ltd.

Key Dates:

1950:: Shu-Ho Shi sets up the Chi Mei retail store selling children's clothing in Taiwan.
1953:: Chi Mei launches industrial production of plastic toys and household goods.
1957:: Under son Hsu Wen-lung, Chi Mei begins production of acrylic sheeting.
1968:: The company launches production of polystyrene.
1997:: The company announces its intention to begin production of TFT-LCD panels.
1998:: Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) is created.
1999:: A technology transfer agreement is made with Fujitsu.
2001:: The company acquires an LCD fab in Japan from IBM.
2004:: Hsu Wen-lung steps down as chairman after the mainland Chinese government labels him "a shameless anti-Chinese bigot."
2005:: CMO receives approval to set up production facilities in mainland China.