Tatung forecasts return to profit on flat-panel gains

Tatung Co (大同), Taiwan's third-largest electronics maker, forecast it will end two years of losses this year on income from a unit that makes flat-panel displays.

Tatung have fourth-quarter net income of more than NT$2 billion (US$58 million), helped by a NT$3 billion profit at 60 percent-owned Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山), president of the Taipei-based company, said in an interview.

Tatung a NT$1.7 billion loss for the first nine months.

Lin's underscores a trend of rising profits at Taiwan's flat-panel makers, which are benefiting as demand surges for flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the island's biggest flat-panel maker, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) have also boosted their 2003 forecasts.

"Tatung will have enough money to offset its losses this year," Lin said. In June, the president forecast Tatung would return to profit in the first quarter of next year.

The company is making a profit on sales of computers and other products such as televisions that use flats screens made by Chunghwa Picture, Lin said. Tatung last week said it may supply flat-panel televisions to Hewlett-Packard Co as the US company shifts to the consumer electronics business.

Hewlett-Packard, the world's second-biggest computer maker, will start shipments of flat TVs with screens measuring 17 inches and 20 inches diagonally in the first quarter next year, a Chinese-language newspaper said on Friday.

The newspaper also said Dell Inc will buy flat TVs from Taiwan's Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技).

The PC makers are targeting a US$1.5 billion liquid-crystal display TV market forecast to grow more than 13-fold in the next four years, according to Texas-based researcher DisplaySearch.

Japanese South Korean companies including Sharp Corp, Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Co dominate the flat-TV market.

Tatung shipping flat TVs with screens as large as 30 inches to customers in the US, Japan and Europe, Lin said, declining to name them. The company expects to ship several hundred thousand TVs next year, compared with shipments this year that "are just starting," he said, without providing details.

Chunghwa Picture, Taiwan's third-largest maker of flat-panel displays used in computers and televisions, said on Nov. 5 it expects its second straight quarter of profit in the period ending Dec. 31 after getting more orders than it can meet.

The company said demand for cathode-ray tubes used in traditional computer monitors has also outstripped its production capability, because PC makers are trying to guarantee supplies amid shortages of flat panels.