Prices of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) have fallen to their lowest level since 2001 but the fourth quarter outlook will improve amid rising demand, according to AU Optronics Corp (
"As personal computer vendors like Dell Inc have begun to boost sales in LCD monitors, we believe the demand [for flat-panel displays] is recovering," AU Optronics chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) told reporters on the sidelines of a company event on Saturday in Taichung.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Thanks to recent price declines, the LCD industry has seen a substantial inventory reduction in channel outlets and is preparing for the Christmas season. Therefore, Lee predicted a stronger shipment figure for September than the previous month.
Lee didn't disclose any figures, but analysts have forecast shipments to grow to some 1.5 million large-size flat-panel displays, up from 1.28 million units in August.
Prices of computer monitor screens have tumbled by a third since June after inventories of the displays piled up, Merrill Lynch analysts Jeffrey Su and Daniel Kim said in a Sept. 21 report. But prices are expected to stabilize on improving demand, smaller rivals like Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (
Prices to stabilize
"Owing to inventory recovering to a healthy level, LCD prices could stabilize in September and October," said James Wu (巫俊毅), chief financial officer of Chunghwa Picture, Taiwan's third-largest maker of LCDs used in televisions and computers.
"Clients have been keen to source notebook-computer panels from Chunghwa Picture starting from the second half this year."
Analysts expect Chunghwa Picture's shipment to recover to 870,000 displays last month.
Quanta Display also expected prices to hit the bottom this month, said vice president Tsai Chuan-chuan (
"We believe seasonal demand for the Christmas shopping spree will arrive to bolster falling panel prices," Tsai said.
Quanta Display, an LCD manufacturing arm of Quanta Computer Inc (
"Prices for LCD panels used in laptop computers will have a better chance of stabilizing, compared to LCD monitors," Tsai said. "Therefore, our fourth quarter sales are expected to exceed that of third quarter."
AU Optronics president Chen Hsuen-bin (
He made the remark in regard to news reports that LCD makers such as LG Philips have cut prices of computer monitor screens below the cost of production.
Next generation plants
LG Philips has started production at a new so-called sixth-generation factory in South Korea that is making screens for computer monitors instead of TVs, as was originally intended, because demand for flat-panel TVs has failed to meet expectations, Chen said.
While LCD monitor demand has showed a strong pickup, Chen remained cautious about the industry's outlook.
"Against the expectation of a demand pickup in the run-up to the Christmas holiday season it remains to be seen how this will be impacted by crude oil prices moving up to record levels," he said on the sidelines of a ceremony marking the joint donation of a building by his company and BenQ Corp (明基電通) to National Taiwan University.
Last month, both AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (
AU Optronics was originally scheduled to set up an advanced 7th-generation (7G), or 7.5-generation (7.5G), factory in Taichung, central Taiwan, in 2006, while Chi Mei Optoelectronics decided to temporarily halt the construction of a 7.5G plant in Tainan.
A 7G, or 7.5G, plant is designed to cut LCD substrates mainly for 40-inch or larger flat-screen televisions.
Chunghwa Picture, however, said it's going ahead with expansion plans. The company will move in production equipment at a new 4.5-generation (4.5G) factory starting this month or next month, Wu said. Such factories make screens for notebook computers and computer monitors.
The company will open its first 6th-generation (6G) plant in the second-quarter next year. Sixth generation plants can make television screens measuring 32-inches diagonally and larger.
Color filters
Chunghwa Picture is also opening plants to supply components used in flat-panel displays. The company has started production of a color-filter plant for its 4.5G screens. The plant will reach full production of 160,000 units per month by the middle of next year.
The company is building another plant to make color filters for its 6G screens. The facility is scheduled to reach full capacity of 45,000 units by the fourth quarter of next year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the