Contract laptop maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) yesterday said that operations at its plant in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) are continuing, after two employees at the facility tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
The company said in a regulatory filing that it had contacted all local employees and related personnel who visited the plant from Jan. 8 to Saturday to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
Compal immediately activated emergency responses and disease prevention measures at the plant, the manufacturer said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The firm has also established a response team to closely monitor the development of the COVID-19 situation, the company added.
The Central News Agency reported that Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) earlier yesterday said the firm had requested that about 1,500 employees at the Pingjhen plant undergo PCR tests.
The plant mainly produces notebook computers, servers and Internet of Things devices.
Compal’s plants in China or Vietnam would temporarily fill the gap if production at the Pingjhen plant is disrupted, the company said.
Compal said it did not expect that the cases would significantly affect its business and finances.
Compal reported record revenue of NT$1.24 trillion (US$44.9 million) for last year, up 17.8 percent from NT$1.05 trillion in 2020, the company said last week.
The manufacturer has not yet released its earnings results for last quarter.
In the first three quarters of last year, net profit reached NT$9.44 billion, up from NT$4.78 billion during the same period of 2020, company data showed.
Earnings per share were NT$2.17, compared with NT$1.1 a year earlier, it showed.
Compal is the latest company to report COVID-19 cases among its employees in Taoyuan, after five employees of consumer electronics connector maker Aces Electronics Co (宏致電子) in the Jhongli Industrial Park (中壢工業區) and 13 employees at a Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) branch in Jhongli District (中壢) tested positive last week.
All cases were linked to cluster infections at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the Central Epidemic Command Center said.
To contain the spread of COVID-19, several financial companies, including CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), have allowed some of their employees to work from home, while front-office staff would from today work in staggered shifts, the companies said.
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