Power supply makers riding high on LCD TV's rise

Taiwanese electronics power supply makers are expected to expand their revenues by more than 60 percent next year as the world's top liquid-crystal-display (LCD) television makers may increase their procurement to cope with the fast-growing demand, a local research institute said yesterday.

"We found that the world's major TV makers, such as Japan's Sony Corp, are increasing their procurement of Taiwan-made power supply devices to meet growing demand," said Maxwell Chang (張乘維), an analyst at the Taipei-based Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所).

Forecasting the red-hot sectors for next year, Topology said that LCD TV would post significant growth and account for more than half of total TV sales.

Shipments of LCD TVs are expected to grow 50 percent to 65 million units next year, compared with an estimated 44 million units this year, on growing replacement demand, Topology said.

"That will be a boon for Tai-wanese power supply makers, which are able to produce higher-quality products," Chang said.

Chang added that local power supply manufacturers' strong production capabilities, led by Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子), will allow them to outpace companies producing other TV components such as TV tuners.

Delta and Phihong Technology Co (飛宏科技) have been supplying power supplies to Japanese television vendors such as Sony and Sharp Corp, and that would help them lure more orders from other Japanese TV vendors, Chang said.

Overall, Taiwanese power supply makers would see revenues surge 63 percent to US$298 million next year, compared with an estimated US$182 million this year, Chang said.

That would translate into a 6-percentage-point rise in global market share to 29 percent, based on Chang's projection.

Shares of Delta have soared 55 percent to NT$101.5 (US$3.13) to date this year, outpacing the benchmark index's 18 percent gain.

Phihong's shares have jumped around 12 percent during the same period.

Meanwhile, growth for Taiwan-ese notebook PC contract makers such as Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and Wistron Corp (緯創) which have ventured into the TV contract market would be slower than the pace of global TV expansion next year, Topology said.

"Their performance will be affected by the lackluster growth of their customers such as Dell Inc and Hewlett Packard Co, which are still struggling to compete with established TV brands," Chang said.

Topology predicted that Tai-wanese firms would ship 13 million LCD TVs next year, up 43 percent from this year.