Teco Group to set up thermal power plant in Subic Bay

Taipei, Jan. 20, 2005 (CENS)--Teco Group, one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of heavy-electric machinery, will cooperate with a Japanese firm to set up a 120,000-kilowatt thermal power plant in the Subic Bay industrial zone of the Philippines, according to company sources.

Establishment of the proposed thermal power plant will cost Teco and the Japanese partner approximately NT$2 billion (US$62.5 million at US$1:NT$32). The power plant will break ground in the beginning of 2006 at the earliest and begin commercial operations in mid-2006. Total investments will return in five to seven years after commercial run begins.

Lien Chao-chih, chief executive of Teco's information and electronics unit, said with the investment in the thermal power plant, his group will transform into a system integrator from a heavy-electric machinery equipment supplier.

A free-trade port, the Subic Bay Industrial Zone provides zero customs duty for imports of parts and raw materials. Products turned out in the zone are subject to preferential customs duties if they are shipped to the 10 member nations of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation).

Teco said it has used Subic Bay as a production base and springboard to enter the Southeast Asian market for air conditioners.