OSAKA -- Panasonic Electronic Devices will set up a new plant in Taiwan as part of its plan to "significantly" increase its overseas production of ALIVH multilayer boards.

The company said it would build a new production site in Taoyuan, Taiwan, by year-end and increase production capacity at its existing plant in New Taipei City. The moves are expected to quadruple the company's monthly HDI capacity for certain end-products.

Panasonic said the capacity increases are in response to demand for printed circuit boards for smartphones. Panasonic Electronic Devices currently produces 1.5 million units of ALIVH PCBs per month for mobile phones. The company aims to double the production capacity to 3 million units by July through capacity increases at its existing manufacturing facility in New Taipei City.

The new plant in Taoyuan near the existing plant will add production capacity of another 3 million units per month, bringing the company's overseas monthly production capacity of ALIVH products to 6 million units by the end of this year.

The New Taipei City site was built in April 2005, and has about 13,300 sq. m of floor space. The new site, which is earmarked for Dayuan Township in Taoyuan County, will be about 18,400 sq. m and will also employ about 300 workers.

The company is accelerating global development of its ALIVH business, positioning ALIVH as a key device essential for further evolution of sophisticated mobile terminals such as smartphones. Panasonic continues to work to meet the demand for mobile phone manufacturers including smartphones through setting up new production sites of ALIVH PCBs.

ALIVH, an acronym for Any Layer Interstitial Via Hole, refers to a type of multilayer epoxy-resin HDI board.

Panasonic Electronic Devices had sales of about $4.52 billion in fiscal 2010. The company employs about 4,500 workers, including 300 at its factory in Taiwan.