The nation's flat-panel makers will likely increase production value by up to 10 percent each quarter this year thanks to strong demand from the personal-computer sector and later from the consumer-electronics sector, a government-funded research institute said yesterday.
During the traditionally slack first quarter, the value of panels made by Taiwanese manufacturers will rise about 6 percent from the previous quarter to about NT$107.38 billion, said Monshen Chen (
"As the growth momentum is expected to last the whole year, I optimistically believe 2004 will be a year for local companies to yield a steady 6 percent to 10 percent growth quarter on quarter," Chen told reporters during a quarterly press conference.
Computer replacement and consumer electronics such as liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs and color-screen handsets will fuel demand for flat panels, he said.
During the first half of the year, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and its local rivals are expected to ship NT$301.94 billion worth of panels, an 80 percent jump from a year ago, the research institute predicted.
However, a short supply of LCD glass could curb panel shipments later in the year, Chen warned.
Despite the healthy outlook for the flat-panel industry, local plasma-display-panel (PDP) makers face a less certain future because of insufficient technological support from their Japanese partners, he said.
To maintain their competitiveness in the market, Japanese companies have been looking for consolidation within the industry, Chen said.
Entertainment equipment maker Pioneer Corp announced earlier this month that it was buying the plasma-display-panel business of high-tech giant NEC Corp, making it the world's largest PDP producer.
Japanese companies have also begun to reduce their technological support for their Taiwanese peers, Chen said.
He speculated that both Formosa Plasma Display Corp (
Chunghwa Picture was scheduled to finalize a NT$10-billion expansion plan in the third quarter, said James Wu (巫俊毅), an assistant vice president of Chunghwa Picture. The new production line will produce 70,000 substrate panels per month, a 10-fold increase in production, Wu said.
Chen was nevertheless optimistic about the long-term partnerships between Taiwanese PDP makers and their Japanese counterparts.
"Japanese makers, which will see global market share drop sharply to around 60 percent this year, are likely to resume technological support for Taiwanese companies in order to combat the growing threat from Samsung Electronics Corp and LG Philips LCD Co [of South Korea]," he said.
Formosa, which could not be reached for comment, has been relying on Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display Ltd for technological support.
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