We are an electronics manufacturing services provider to a select group of the world’s leading OEMs of telecommunications and consumer electronic products.

Products

LCD MODULES

Color LCD modules to display information as part of telecommunication products such as cellular phones and telephone systems, appliances and office automation products, such as copiers and facsimile machines.

Our LCD modules could be manufactured for use in most other hand-held consumer electronic devices, such as electronic games and digital cameras.

CMOS sensor modules, which we began manufacturing in June 2003, for integration into various image capturing devices such as digital cameras for cellular phones and home entertainment products.
Wireless Headsets for use with the cellular phones.
Digital audio broadcast modules are designed into digital radio products such as home tuners, kitchen radios, in-car receivers, PCI cards, CD players, clock radios, boom boxes, midi-systems and handheld portable devices.
Front light panels for handheld video game devices, which we began manufacturing in January 2003.

TECHNOLOGIES

We utilize advanced technologies in the manufacturing of our products. To satisfy the needs of our OEM customers we stay abreast of advancements in technology, upgrading the technologies used in production to maximize flexibility in product design, increase quality levels, and minimize production costs.

CHIP ON FILM, OR COF, is an assembly method for bonding integrated circuit chips and other components onto a flexible printed circuit. This process allows for greater compression of the size of a product when assembled enabling the production and miniaturization of small form factor devices like cellular phones, PDAs, digital cameras and notebook PCs. As of December 31, 2007, we had 16 COF machines. These machines connect the bump of large scale integrated, or LSI, driver onto FPC pattern with anisotropic conductive film, or ACF. These COF machines have the ability to pitch fine to 38 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 4,400,000 chips per month.

CHIP ON GLASS, OR COG, is a process that connects integrated circuits directly to LCD panels without the need for wire bonding. We apply this technology to produce advanced LCD modules for high-end electronic products, such as cellular phones and PDAs. As of December 31, 2007, we had 23 COG lines in our principal manufacturing facilities. These machines provide an LCD of dimension of up to 200 millimeters (length) x 150 (width) x 2.2 (height), a process time of five seconds per chip, a pin pitch fine to 38 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 4,200,000 chips per month. During 2005, our subsidiary, Jetup, also started manufacturing COG LCD modules. As of December 31, 2007, Jetup had nine COG lines and is capable of bonding 5 million units of COG LCD modules a month. They are able to bond LCD panels up to sizes of 200 millimeters x 200 millimeters x 2.2 millimeters thick, with an accuracy of five microns’ tolerance, in a cycle time of 12-15 seconds per piece.

CHIP ON BOARD, OR COB, is a technology that utilizes wire bonding to connect large-scale integrated circuits directly to printed circuit boards. As of December 31, 2007, we had 53 COB aluminum bonding machines which provide a high speed chip bonding time of 0.25 second per 2 millimeters wire, a bond pad fine to 75 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 3,829,000 (150 wires/board) per month. We use COB aluminum bonding in the assembly of consumer products such as digital pen, calculators, electronic dictionaries and audio products. We also had three COB gold ball bonding machines which provide a high speed chip bonding time of 0.072 second per 2 millimeters wire, a bond pad fine to 50 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 500,000 (150 wires/board) per month. We use COB gold ball bonding in the CMOS camera module, which use in USB camera, notebook computer, mobile phone and digital pen.

OUTER LEAD BONDING, OR OLB, is an advanced technology used to connect PCBs and large-scale integrated circuits with a large number of connectors. We use this technology to manufacture complex miniaturized products, such as high-memory PDAs. As of December 31, 2007, we had three OLB machines. The machines include multi-pinned tape carrier packaged large scale integrated circuit, or TCP LSIC, bonding which is up to 280 pins, which also provide ultra thin assembly with module thickness to around one millimeter and high accuracy bonding with pin pitch to 100 micrometers. The total production capacity is 12,000 units per month.

TAPE AUTOMATED BONDING WITH ANISOTROPIC CONDUCTIVE FILM, OR TAB WITH ACF, is an advanced heat sealing technology that connects a liquid crystal display component with an integrated circuit in very small LCD modules, such as those used in cellular phones and pagers. As of December 31, 2007, we had 24 systems of TAB with ACF machines. The machines provide process time of 10 to 25 seconds per component, a pin pitch fine to 150 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 4,936,000 components per month. During 2005, Jetup also started manufacturing TAB LCD modules. As of December 31, 2007, Jetup had four TAB lines and is capable of bonding 2,000,000 pieces of TAB LCD modules a month. They are able to bond LCD panels up to sizes of 120 millimeters x 120 millimeters x 2.2 millimeters thick, with an accuracy of 10 microns’ tolerance in a cycle time of 20-25 seconds per piece.

FINE PITCH HEAT SEAL TECHNOLOGY, OR FPHS TECHNOLOGY, allows us to connect LCD displays to PCBs produced by COB and outer lead bonding that enables very thin connections. This method is highly specialized and is used in the production of finished products such as PDAs. As of December 31, 2007, we had eight machines utilizing FPHS technology. The machines provide a pin pitch fine to 260 micrometers and a total production capacity of up to 268,000 units per month.

SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY, OR SMT, is a process by which electronic components are mounted directly on both sides of a printed circuit board, increasing board capacity, facilitating product miniaturization and enabling advanced automation of production. We use SMT for products such as electronic linguistic devices. As of December 31, 2007, we had 37 SMT productions lines. The production time per chip ranges from 0.055 second per chip to 0.8 second per chip and high precision ranging from +/-0.05 millimeter to +/-0.1 millimeter. The components size ranges from 0.4 millimeter (length) x 0.2 millimeter (width) to 55 millimeters (length) x 55 millimeters (width). Ball grid array, or BGA, ball pitch is 0.4 millimeter and ball diameter is 0.2 millimeter. Flip Chip, our smallest lead/bump pitch, is 250/240UM and out smallest components spacing is 0.15 micrometers. The total production capacity is over 1 billion resistor capacitor chips per month.

SUPER-TWISTED NEMATIC LCDS, OR STN DISPLAYS, is a type of monochrome passive matrix LCD capable of providing higher information content display systems and are typically found in applications such as cordless phones, mobile phones, MP3 players, pocket games and PDAs. Our Jetup began producing STN LCDs in 2002. During 2005, Jetup upgraded its two existing twisted nematic, or TN type, LCD lines to STN LCD lines. TN displays rotate the director of the liquid crystal by 90°, but STN LCD displays employ up to a 270° rotation. This extra rotation gives the crystal a much steeper voltage-brightness response curve and also widens the agnle at which the display can be viewed before losing much contrast. As of December 31 2007, Jetup was using three automated STN lines capable of producing both TN and STN type LCDs with capacity of 150,000 pairs of glass (each sheet of glass of 360 millimeters x 400 millimeters size) panels per month.

LCD BACK-END is a main manufacturing process for LCD panels, and is regarded as part of the process for its finished product LCD modules. It includes the precise pure water cleaning process, scribing of LCD glass, liquid crystal insertion, sealing process and breaking process, then turns the LCD mother glass into LCD panels. Our machines can cope with 0.2 millimeters + 0.2 millimeters LCD mother glass up to dimension 550 millimeters x 670 millimeters, with cutting tolerance +/-0.1 millimeters. Nam Tai started mass production from September 2006, with monthly maximum production capacity of 1,800,000 units.

As of December 31, 2007, we had eight clean rooms at our principal manufacturing facilities, which housed COB, COF and COG and Chip Scale Package capabilities for CMOS sensor modules, electronic calculators, digital camera accessories, LCD modules manufacturing. At the same date, we also have four clean rooms at another of our factories, which we use to manufacture LCD panels and modules.

A cleanroom is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, which has a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles and chemical vapors. In other words, a cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a specified particle size. Of our 12 clean rooms at December 31, 2007, four were class ten thousand, six were class thousand and two were class one hundred with one of them use for cleaning the clothes to be used in clean room.

Wuxi
Shenzhen

Our ‘best-in-class” manufacturing facilities are located in China: in Shenzhen, 30 miles from Hong Kong, and Wuxi, 60 miles from Shanghai.

The Shenzhen facilities are in Bao’An District, situated just 6 miles from the International Airport, China’s 3rd largest, and 10 miles from the Qianhai Bay Economic Zone, an exciting new joint venture between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Governments to attract foreign direct investment.

The Wuxi facilities are located strategically in Wuxi New District, a major high-tech industrial zone, and within 7 miles of Wuxi’s Airport. Excellent infrastructure enables the Wuxi facility to connect seamlessly with the key transportation hub of Shanghai.

SHENZHEN WUXI

Back to MapSHENZHEN CHINA

PRINCIPAL MANUFACTURING FACILITIES

Our principal manufacturing facilities are located in the Bao’An District of Shenzhen. In December 1993, we acquired a 50-year lease for the land on which these facilities are located and initially built a manufacturing facility consisting of approximately 160,000 square feet of manufacturing space, 39,000 square feet of office space, 212,000 square feet of dormitories and 26,000 square feet of full service cafeteria, recreation facilities and a swimming pool. Over the years beginning in November 2000, we have made several additions to these facilities, including:

  • a five-story factory with approximately 138,000 square feet of production facilities, including one floor for assembling, one floor of office space, one floor for warehouse use and two floors of class thousand clean room facilities, totaling approximately 626,000 square feet of manufacturing space, when construction was completed in October 2002;
  • an additional factory, consisting of approximately 265,000 square feet of space, completing construction in December 2004 on vacant land of approximately 280,000 square feet (approximately 6.5 acres) bordering on our existing facilities that we purchased in July 1999; and
  • two additional blocks of dormitories, which we completed during 2005.

With these additions, our principal manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen total approximately 557,835 square feet of manufacturing space, 87,460 square feet of offices, 350,585 square feet of dormitories and 41,530 square feet of cafeteria space, and include a full services recreational building of 33,825 square feet. When fully utilized the current facility has a turnover production capacity of up to US$150 million per month.

Our LCD manufacturing facility is located in the Guanlan District of Shenzhen and consists of 134,549 square feet of manufacturing space. Our subsidiary, Zastron Shenzhen leases this facility from a third party to manufacture LCDs and LCD Modules. Rent for this facility is approximately $0.02 million a month.


FUTURE EXPANSION

The major project in Shenzhen is the development of the Company’s raw land in Guangming Hi-Tech Industrial Park, approximately 30 minutes from Nam Tai’s existing facilities in Shenzhen and approximately one hour driving distance from Hong Kong. We acquired the land use rights to approximately 1.3 million square feet of land in 2005. In light of the announcement by the Shenzhen government of a City Rezoning Project to redevelop the entire area containing the Company’s existing Shenzhen facility into a High-end Commercial district, this location will no longer be suitable for any manufacturing of this kind. As a result, we have been requested to move out from our existing facility and therefore the need to finalize our plans for the new location is a high priority. We are focusing our efforts and discussions with the Shenzhen government to release the land in Guangming for our development at the earliest practical time, with the expectation that the new location would be operational by the end of 2015. Subsequent to the expected relocation, the Company will hold the present location of its Shenzhen manufacturing facility, as a significant valuable asset for the time being.

Back to MapWUXI CHINA

Principal Manufacturing Facilities

We completed construction of our Wuxi manufacturing facility in 2009 and began manufacturing operations at this factory in early 2010. The site is located on a parcel of approximately 470,000 square feet of land, providing 150,700 square feet of space for the manufacture of LCD modules. When fully utilized the current facility has a turnover production capacity of up to US$150 million per month.

When we acquired the land use rights in Wuxi, we also acquired similar rights to a second parcel of approximately 515,000 square feet of raw land situated approximately three miles from the first parcel we used for our manufacturing facility. In September 2010, we sold the second Wuxi parcel back to the Wuxi local government for approximately $1.6 million, realizing a gain of approximately $0.8 million on the second parcel.


FUTURE EXPANSION

The Wuxi expansion project involves our acquisition of the land use rights to raw land adjacent to our manufacturing facility in Wuxi. On July 2, 2012 we announced that we recently entered into an agreement with the local government of Wuxi to a purchase of a parcel of land or approximately 470,000 square feet for the expansion of our Wuxi manufacturing facility. On July 12, a stone-laying ceremony was held for the construction of the facility’s new sections which are expected to be completed by August 2014. This expanded facility will include office buildings, a research and development center and environmental and safety control center, an SMT plant and warehouse, labor union buildings, and employee activity centers.

ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH & SAFETY

As a responsible and forward-looking corporation, Nam Tai appreciates the importance of environmental protection and high levels of employee health and safety.

A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE

Our customers include some of the world’s leading OEMs of telecommunications and consumer electronic products. An integral part of our customers’ brand is to provide consumers with high-quality, high-performance products, which are designed for the entire life cycle. Such products consume less energy and resources during manufacture, transport and use, and can easily be reused or recycled. Our customers depend on Nam Tai to deliver such products. Furthermore, they expect Nam Tai to ensure the well being of our employees. At the same time, high levels of environmental, health and safety performance make sound commercial sense, helping us to reduce operational costs, maintain high productivity levels and stay ahead of evolving legislation in China and customer markets.

Key Environmental Issues

For our business, we need to ensure that:
  • Products meet customer specifications on banned and restricted chemical substances and on design for reuse / recycling;
  • Resources, including electricity, gasoline and water, are used as efficiently as possible;
  • Solid waste and wastewater are adequately monitored, controlled and treated;
  • Emissions of volatile organic compounds and particulates are reduced to improve the air quality in the Pearl River Delta;
  • Chemicals and hazardous materials used in the manufacturing process are responsibly managed;
  • We comply with local, regional, national and international legislation.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

We have established environmental management systems at our principal manufacturing facilities. The systems at our facilities have been certified to the international ISO14001 standard since as early as 2001. We have encouraged the continued effectiveness of our certified systems by asking two independent organisations to conduct surveillance and re-certification visits. The objectives embedded in these systems are regularly reviewed and tracked. If performance is not on target, an action plan is developed and implemented. The systems also help us to achieve high levels of compliance.

If performance is not on target, an action plan is developed and implemented. The systems also help us to achieve high levels of compliance. During 2004, we were not subject to any environment-related prosecutions or fines.

EUROPEAN LEGISLATION IS CHANGING MANUFACTURING PROCESSES IN CHINA

Nam Tai works closely with customers to implement their environmental product specifications into our operations and those of our suppliers. The main driver for this has been new legislation in the European Union, such as the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). The latter is particularly relevant for Nam Tai and has led to a gradual change in our operations. The RoHS Directive states that all electrical and electronic equipment sold after July 2006 must not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyls. Nam Tai has been helping customers to meet RoHS and similar country-specific requirements since 2003.

We have found that effective RoHS implementation requires a well-structured and comprehensive approach for both our own operations and to a greater extent, for those of our suppliers. Full compliance is achievable but complicated by issues of cross-contamination between components and between production lines. Furthermore, it is currently not feasible to use recycled metals in our products as these are often contaminated with trace amounts of substances covered by the RoHS Directive.

The implementation of these procedures is supported by declarations and third party test reports from our suppliers as well as our own in house testing. Furthermore, implementation is an agenda item during regular customer discussions and is included in customer audits and assessments of Nam Tai facilities.

RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRICITY, WASTEWATER AND WASTE

The main source of electricity for our facilities is the municipal power grid. In order to allow continuous manufacturing, we have contingency plans that include back-up diesel powered generators. In order to reduce the emission of air pollutants, we check the quality of our diesel against applicable standards.

Sanitary wastewater generated from dormitories, toilets and the canteen is treated by on-site wastewater treatment plants prior to discharge to the municipal sewerage system. Process water is treated and either reused in manufacturing, used as grey water on site or sent to treatment facilities off site. Waste, such as cardboard, plastic and paper are collected by a recycling company. Hazardous waste is collected for treatment by the municipality. The municipal authorities also collect general refuse for disposal to landfill.

KEY HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES

The main source of electricity for our facilities is the municipal power grid. In order to allow continuous manufacturing, we have contingency plans that include back-up diesel powered generators. In order to reduce the emission of air pollutants, we check the quality of our diesel against applicable standards.

Sanitary wastewater generated from dormitories, toilets and the canteen is treated by on-site wastewater treatment plants prior to discharge to the municipal sewerage system. Process water is treated and either reused in manufacturing, used as grey water on site or sent to treatment facilities off site. Waste, such as cardboard, plastic and paper are collected by a recycling company. Hazardous waste is collected for treatment by the municipality. The municipal authorities also collect general refuse for disposal to landfill.

For our business, we need to ensure that:
  • Employee exposure to safety hazards are properly controlled;
  • Machine guards are provided and properly maintained;
  • Emergency situations are identified, assessed and prepared for;
  • Occupational injuries and illness are reported, investigated and addressed;
  • Physically demanding and repetitive tasks are identified and evaluated;
  • Welfare facilities (e.g. toilets, potable water, clean dormitories) are provided;
  • We comply with local, regional, national and international legislation.

HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT

We provide a safe and healthy work environment for our employees and seek to comply with all applicable occupational health and safety statutory requirements. Furthermore, we aim to make ongoing improvements to our health and safety culture. For example, NTEEP’s key performance indicators include absenteeism rates, injury frequency and training hours. These are reviewed on a monthly basis and actions taken to address shortcomings.

Safety training is provided as part of our induction programme for new employees. In addition, on-the-job training is provided such that employees can acquire the necessary skills and safety awareness for specific activities. For example, designated teams of competent staff are responsible for carrying out potentially hazardous activities such as the maintenance of electrical equipment and operation of forklift trucks. Thanks to a partnership with our local hospital, there is a clinic providing professional medical care services within our manufacturing facilities.

As required by law, appropriate fire protection facilities are installed for both production and living areas. In addition, we ensure that employees are properly trained to respond in emergency situations. These skills are practised during regular emergency drills with the local fire protection authorities.

A large portion of our manufacturing processes is highly automated, thus minimising employee exposure to hazardous chemicals and dangerous machine parts. Where feasible, we fully enclose machines so as to isolate employees from moving parts.

We conduct regular air quality monitoring to ensure that volatile organic compounds are below recommended levels. In addition, the RoHS Directive will help further reduce employee exposure to hazardous substances.

With these occupational health and safety management practices in place, we were not subject to any related prosecutions or fines since 2007. As such, we will continue to develop a systematic approach to manage the occupational health and safety aspects of our operations.