As a result of profits it made in the third quarter of 2009 owing to enhanced demand, the company is re-starting its 8.5G project after having delayed it for about a year, Wang said.

The company will produce 8,000 substrates a month in the second quarter of 2010, and then raise the monthly capacity to 24,000 substrates in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Wang Jyh-chau, president of Chi Mei Optoelectronics.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics has planned to raise its 2009 capital expenditure to NT$45 billion (US $1.39 billion) from the earlier budget of NT$40 billion with a view to funding the company’s different projects related to production improvement and capacity expansion.

The company’s capacity is estimated to go up by 20 per cent -25 per cent in 2010 thanks to the improvement and expansion projects, according to Wang Jyh-chau.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics plans to enhance capacity at its 6G plant to 120,000 substrates a month by the end of 2009, and to 160,000 substrates a month in 2010. The present monthly capacity is 105,000 substrates.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics, according to Wang Jyh-chau, is also engaged in efforts to improve the production at its 5G plants and 5.5G plants – aimed at hiking the capacity of both facilities by 10 per cent.