TCL Corp, a China-based television vendor, is close to clinching a deal with Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (
"There is a good chance [for the tie-up] as TCL hopes to secure a stable supply of liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels for TVs in light of rising demand in China," Chunghwa Picture spokesman Liu Chih-chun (
More details will be released after TCL chairman Tomson Li (
Shares of Chunghwa Picture rose NT$0.20, or 1.57 percent, to close at NT$12.9 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, amid market speculation that the Chinese electronics provider may place orders to Chunghwa Picture for thin-film-transistor-LCD panels.
Chunghwa Picture, a leading Taiwanese slim-screen supplier, currently has two LCD-panel assembly lines in China -- in Wujian, Jiangsu Province, and Fuzhou, Fujian Province.
"Chunghwa Picture will be the biggest beneficiary from the deal, as it will help digest the firm's massive new output that is scheduled to come out in the second half of the year," said Robert Lin (林家宇), an analyst with Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (元大京華證券).
The Taoyuan-based company currently makes 46-inch plasma-display-panel TVs for TCL and supplies as many as 200,000 cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), used in traditional TV sets, per month, along with a small amount of LCD panels, Liu said.
TCL is expected to purchase TFT-LCD panels worth over US$2 billion this year from Taiwanese companies including Chunghwa Picture and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan's No. 2 maker of flat panels, according to a Chinese-language newspaper.
Li is also expected to meet other Taiwanese industry leaders during his trip, the newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
"It's a must for TCL to increase its purchases from Taiwanese TFT-LCD-panel makers, if TCL is making inroads into the LCD TV market," said James Wu (
Chi Mei acknowledged that TCL is one of its clients, but it declined to comment on whether the Chinese firm planned to increase its orders.
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