Teco to Ship Windpower Generators to Japan

Taipei, March 21, 2011 (CENS)--Teco Group, Taiwan's leading conglomerate of heavy electric machinery, is negotiating with Japanese dealers for shipping windpower generators to meet the increasing need for the products in the wake of the devastating earthquake hitting northeastern Japan on March 11.

Teco chairman C.K. Liu said installing windpower generating units will be faster than setting up a thermal power plant, and cooperation with Japanese concerns will help accelerate the installation speed.

With the recent acquisition of orders for five windpower generators to be installed at the Changhwa Coastal Industrial Park in central Taiwan, Teco has already received orders for 70 windpower generators. The company is projected to ship over 15 windpower generators in 2011.

To ramp up sales from the energy industry, Teco has resolved to issue Euro convertible bonds (ECBs) capped at US$200 million.

Liu firmly noted that Japan will consider increasing supply of renewable energy to cushion the impact of the massive earthquake which has destroyed 25% power-generating capacity in the northeastern region of Japan.

He believed it will take three to five years to complete reconstruction of a thermal power plant or a nuclear one. But it only needs a year and a half to install a windpower plant, including eight or nine months for windpower generator production plus a half year of installation and test running.

At present, the windpower generators that are operational in Japan are of small power with less than one million watts. In the wake of the devastating earthquake, Japan is expected to speed up the pace of establishing windpower facilities.

Teco is the most profitable listed firm in the category of heavy electric machinery on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company registered NT$45.042 billion in consolidated sales with after-tax earnings reaching NT$2.721 billion, or NT$13.8 per share, in 2010.

Teco currently focuses on two-million-watt windpower generators, the mainstay of the sector, each of which costs between NT$80 million and NT$100 million. The company estimated it would be able to register sales of over NT$2 billion from orders placed by Inner Mongolia this year.