Compal Electronics is set to start pilot production at its plants in Chengdu, China on December 19 with initial output to reach more than 1,000 notebooks each month, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.

In addition to notebook production, the Chengdu plants will also manufacture other products such as all-in-one PCs, tablet PCs and LCD TVs, the paper said, adding the annual notebook production capacity is expected to reach more than 20 million units by 2013.

The Chengdu plants currently has about 200-300 employees and the number is expected to increase to 20,000 after the annual notebook capacity reaches 20 million units, the paper added.