AU Optronics profit for Q1 drops 91% on prices dip

AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's fourth-largest maker of flat-panel displays used in electronic products, said first-quarter profit fell by 91 percent after prices failed to recover from a one-third slump last year.

The company posted net income of NT$179 million (US$5.1 million) compared with NT$2 billion a year ago. Sales, announced earlier in monthly reports, fell to NT$17.1 billion from NT$19.7 billion. The company forecast full-year profit for this year of NT$2.58 billion.

"The first-quarter results are generally in line with our earlier guidance," chief financial officer Max Cheng (鄭煒順) said.

"Successful internal cost control and product mix improvement" enabled the company to outperform its domestic peers in the first quarter, Cheng said.

The company said it expects shipments of large-sized panels measuring 17 inches and more diagonally to rise in the second from the first quarter and average selling prices to improve from US$205 in the first three months.

AU Optronics expects all its factories except its newest ones to be fully utilized in the second quarter. The company is the first domestic company to start production from a new factory that promises to boost shipments this year by about 50 percent.

The factory will use so-called fifth-generation equipment that cuts costs by increasing the number of screens that can be cut from a single sheet of glass.

Flat-panel prices are falling as Samsung Electronics Co, LG.Philips LCD Co and other display makers invest in new factories, increasing future supply.