The Liberty Times quoted BenQ Manager Hung Han-ching as saying that in 2007, BenQ will focus on LCD TV and LCD monitors to meet with the soaring demand for LCD products.

“Despite increased supply, there is still a 20-percent shortage. We hope to ship our all our products before the start of the Chinese New Year holidays,” the paper quoted Hung as saying.

The Chinese New Year holiday is the most important festival for Chinese all over the world. In 2007, the lunar new year holidays begin on February 17.

Hung said BenQ will continue its core business of mobile-phone production and will launch new products.

“Last year we produced 270,000 handsets. In 2007, we plan to produce 300,000 handsets, mainly with youthful and metallic casing, and will launch our lightest 3G handsets and BenQ-Siemens E81 handset at the end of January, and will launch GPS handset and 3.5G handset during the (schools’) summer vacation,” he said.

BenQ reported three billion Taiwan dollars (about US$90 million) in revenues last year, and aims at five billion Taiwan dollars (US$151 million) in revenues in 2007.

BenQ manufactured 500,000 LCD TVs and 190,000 LCD monitors last year, and hopes to raise LCD TV and LCD monitor output to 800,000 and 250,000 units respectively in 2007.

BenQ, once a small electronics company, grabbed global headlines in 2005 when it bought the loss-making handset unit of Siemens, to launch the BenQ-Siemens brand cell phones.

But last year BenQ stopped investing in its German unit, BenQ Mobile, leaving 3,000 German staff out of work and triggering suspicion that BenQ’s takeover of Siemens’ handset unit was to acquire the Siemens brand, not to inherit its loss-making unit.

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