By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Apr 26 -- Wistron(纬创), the world's third-largest laptop contract manufacturer, is to close its plant in Taizhou of eastern China's Jiangsu Province after successive years of losses, the company announced on April 20.

Headquartered in Taiwan region, Wistron established its Taizhou plant in 2009 and has a negative net value of NT$5.555 billion ($180 million) to date. The plant has been Wistron's second-largest investment project in the Chinese mainland after its Zhongshan plant. The company has invested a total of NT$4.929 billion ($160 million), the company's 2022 financial report showed.

The decision was made by the plant's board of directors after failing to achieve an economic scale, and taking into consideration of the overall economic and trade situation and changed customer demand.

The Taizhou plant, which specializes in the production of liquid crystal modules (LCMs), is set to be closed down instead of to be sold off, noted Taiwan media reports. The move came as a result of Apple's shift from LCD to OLED screens in their product line, including the upcoming iPhone 14 models.

Apple is also planning to make the switch to OLED displays for devices such as iPads and MacBooks by 2027, according to a report by technology research group Omdia on April 23.

A field visit to the Taizhou plant by Time Finance on April 23 revealed that the plant was almost completely vacant, with only a security guard stationed at the main entrance, said the Time Finance report.