Good news! Having a plant in Taiwan near Wistron/Acer helps. This plant will be VLNC's third source of supply. Last quarter they used Amperex plant to manufacture the cobalt-based small format battery for the PDA's. For the Saphion technology, Sinbon will be the second source of supply, according to today's press release.
When FengFan in China gets the govt. approval, FengFan will be probably a third source for the Saphion technology batteries. These developments indicate that, Joe Lamoreux, vice president of small-format energy solutions for VLNC is moving along in the right direction, accumulating plant capacity for the future production needs. Would he do it if VLNC does not already know what their short-term (and long-term) production needs are expected to be?
For the stock price and earnings, VLNC needs to produce batteries and sell. Previously, Godevais stated that their NI plant, capable of manufacturing 5MM whr/month, could meet the entire demand. It looks as if VLNC expects a need for more production capactiy and presumably that is the reason for going after third-party plants, not only for the additional production capacity but also specific battery type/technology product combination. (Additional benefits of local plants could be avoidance of export-import tariffs, if any, and higher taxes.) jmo
Ram |
