The world's major flat-panel makers, including Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), would benefit from the planned merger of China's three computer panel makers, as reduced output would ease overcapacity-driven price decline, according to investment research.
BOE Technology Group Co (京東方), China's biggest thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal-display (TFT-LCD) panel supplier, said last week it was set to merge with two Chinese rivals SVA Group (上海廣電) and InfoVision Optoelectronics (龍騰光電) by June 30.
The merger would create a new entity with a global market share of 5 percent, up from BOE's current 3.9 percent.
It would also help the Chinese company's market position to improve and challenge the world's fifth-largest flat panel maker, Taoyuan-based Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管).
"It [the merger] will improve industry discipline and also suggests that there will not be any new comers in China in the future," Frank Su (
On top of that, "it will reduce global supply by 2 percent in 2008," Su said.
Originally, two sixth-generation (6G) Chinese plants were due to start mass production in the second half of next year and the first half of 2009, but now there would be only one in the wake of the consolidation, Su added.
Taiwan's two largest TFT-LCD panel makers, AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) as well as South Korea-based LG Philips LCD Co would benefit from better industry discipline, or less stiff price competition, Su said.
In May Su said that consolidation among China's three LCD panel manufacturers would occur within two to three years on growing financial difficulties, falling panel prices and AU Optronics' acquisition of local competitor Quanta Display Inc (
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure