With experience and technology acquired from its partner LG Electronics (LGE), Micro-Star International (MSI) is planning to introduce own-brand notebooks at the end of 2003, company chairman and president Joseph Hsu said at a May 28 shareholders meeting.

MSI has not decided what brand name it will adopt for the new notebook line, Hsu added.

MSI recently began small-scale volume production of notebook-use motherboards for LGE at its new Kunshan, Jiangsu Province (China) production facility, Hsu said.

For the cooperation, MSI set up a joint venture with LGE in Kunshan through its subsidiary MSI Pacific International Holding Company. MSI holds 49% of the new venture, while LGE controls 51%.

Full-scale production at the new site will begin in the third quarter. One-fourth of the capacity at the plant will be devoted to the joint venture, for output of an estimated 50,000-100,000 notebook motherboards per month.

MSI will increase the number of motherboard SMT lines from four initially to 10 later. It will also establish three or four optical drive production lines at the site, MSI said.

Source: Digitimes