Micro-Star International (MSI) will be giving a greater focus on producing environmentally safe products, even if it means higher cost of production. Announcing this strategy decision during a Media Tour, Vincent Lai, Director - Marketing Department, MSI said, “MSI was the first company in the world to come up with a RoHS compliant VGA Graphic Cards. This shows our concerns for environmental safety.”

Apart from the graphic cards, all the MSI motherboards manufactured for OEM are already RoHS and WEEE compliant. "By April 2006, we expect to get RoHS compliance for all our motherboards that will include the ones for channels," he added.

MSI enjoys a high reputation for its innovations in the construction of motherboards, graphics cards, optical storage devices, workstations, servers, slim PCs, barebone systems and IA Products. Of the many environment safety regulations in the world, MSI has been giving a lot of importance to the European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directives for its products.

These directives restrict the presence of certain substances, including lead (Pb), mercury and many other toxic substances, in electrical and electronic products offered for sale into the European Union. 

The WEEE Directive, effective from August 2005, aims to raise the level of recycling of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and encourages designers to create products with recycling in mind. A key intention of this law is to make manufacturers and importers of EEE responsible for meeting the costs of the collection, treatment and recovery of WEEE.

For manufacturers the world over it has become all the more important to oblige to these regulations because, from July 1, 2006 countries forming the European Union will ban all electronic products not complying to RoHS directives.

Most motherboard manufacturers are ready to conform to the RoHS and WEEE directives, but the companies estimate the new requirements will increase production cost of their boards. This does not include any change in the costs of the other components used on the board, for example the chipsets. The cost can go up by 25% to 35% depending on the products. 

MSI has a dedicated team working towards achieving full RoHS/WEEE compliance. The team works with external suppliers to ensure that purchased products are RoHS compliant. They see that solder used in internal manufacturing operations are lead-free. They also document data on material composition on all parts and materials. The team also implements controls to ensure conformance to environmental compliance standards and recyclability in new product development.

In the field of electronics recycling, Japan took an early lead. The Japanese Home Electronics Recycling Law mandated that Japanese OEMs be prepared to collect and recycle air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions and washing machines by April 2001. In 2001 Japan also updated a decade-old recycling law to address PCs. Since October 2003, that law has required the recycling of PCs discarded by both private citizens and businesses.

Considering that China has in the past been a dumping ground for waste electronics, it is now ready to put its own version of the RoHS directive into place, dubbed the Regulation for Pollution Control of Electronics Products. Similar to Europe's RoHS, China's version of the regulations is set to go into effect concurrently in July of 2006.

China is also apparently developing its own version WEEE legislation, dubbed Management Regulations on the Recycling of Used Household Electrical Products and Electronic Products.

Similarly, South Korea also has the legislated electronics recycling, requiring producers and importers to take back and recycle both their products and packaging. (The author was hosted in Shanghai by MSI)

NELSON JOHNY
SHANGHAI

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