After transferring production of its mainboards and graphics cards to mainland China in the last couple of years, ASUSTeK Computer is looking forward to fully shift all of its manufacturing to China, leaving only research and development as well as marketing groups in Taiwan.

A report by DigiTimes web-site, which cites sources familiar with plans of ASUS, claims that the company is set to transfer all of its production lines, including those for own-brand notebooks, consumer electronics-related devices and LCD monitors, to its new China plant in Nanhui, Shanghai , by the Q3 of 2006. By 2008 the only activities ASUS will perform in Taiwan will be R&D departments along with marketing and sales units for domestic promotion, if the report is correct.

Currently ASUS uses its plant in Suzhou , Jiangsu Province, China , for production of notebooks for the third-parties. But once the Shanghai fab is launched, the company will make own-brand notebooks in China as well. Furthermore, the company’s mobile phones will also be made in China .

Workforce in China is much less expensive compared to staff in Taiwan . Given that fabrication technology of today’s digital devices mainly relates on machines, shifting production even to less experienced workforce in China should not result in substantially lower quality of components made, even though cheaper workforce does not produce devices of the same quality as more expensive personnel. However, fierce competition across the world forces all mainboard makers to reduce production costs in order to be in position to offer competitive pricing.

The fab in Shanghai , China , was originally expected to be completed already in 2005 .

Officially ASUS is polling some of its employees whether they are willing to work in China and the company also confirms that the production migration to China is proceeding slowly.