Touch panel maker J Touch expects its shipments to reach a peak in May-June 2011, buoyed by orders from clients in Europe and Taiwan. The market for iPad-like tablet PCs will be larger than expected as non-brand vendors are eager to enter the segment, the company noted.

Most iPad-like tablet vendors are likely to focus on 7-inch models initially as there are no dominant brands in the 7-inch tablet segment currently, J Touch commented.

J Touch currently has a production capacity of 5.5 million touch panels a month, including 3.5 million capacitive touch panels and two million resistive models. The company's capacity will be doubled in the second half of 2011 when the company's new plant in Changsha, China is completed. The newly added capacity will focus on the production of capacitive touch panels only, the company noted.

To finance its expansion project, the company has raised a total of NT$1.84 billion (US$62.26 million) in new funds, including NT$640 million from the sale of eight million new shares and NT$1.2 billion from a convertible bond issue.