On September 30 the Taiwanese companies Asustek and Advantech announced they will form a joint venture for the design and manufacturing of industrial PCs. The joint venture will start operations in mid-2006 with a monthly capacity of 500,000 industrial PCs or motherboards. It marks the first time Asustek has ventured into the field of industrial PCs, as profit margins for its current product line are becoming smaller. Advantech currently manufactures about 50,000 industrial PCs or motherboards per month, and the company will be greatly helped by Asustek's large production capacity.