HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), which makes flat panels used in computers, yesterday reported its fourth-highest quarterly earnings, although those earnings had a 74 percent drop from last quarter.
Net income hit NT$2.36 billion (US$77.9 million) during the first quarter, compared with losses of NT$2.34 billion a year ago, the company said in a statement. The company also booked a foreign exchange gain of NT$62 million.
Last quarter HannStar reported historical high earnings of NT$9.08 billion and an asset gain of NT$6.93 billion from selling a plant.
The average selling price of panels dropped 7 percent quarter on quarter because of existing inventory digestion, but increased 13 percent year-on-year to US$131 per unit, HannStar said.
“Demand for LCD monitor slowed down in January and February, but it recovered in March. The strength is becoming stronger this month, which caused recent price hikes,” company president Paul Chou (周定輝) told investors in an online conference.
“The second quarter will be a better period than the first quarter,” he said.
Prices are expected to rise slightly in the current quarter amid recovering demand, Chou said.
He said the third quarter would be a good season for HannStar because of strong demand in the industry’s traditional peak season.
But Chou was cautious about the fourth quarter, given the weakening macro economy’s impact on consumers’ purchasing power, especially for high-priced electronics.
To boost gross margins from the current 20 percent, Chou said HannStar was aggressively increasing its output of small and medium flat panels, primarily 7 inches in size, which are used in low-cost computers and digital photo frames.
HannStar plans to nearly quadruple its output of small and medium panels to 30,000 sheets this quarter, from 8,000 sheets in the first quarter, he said.
Discussing the possibility of building a next-generation plant, Chou said Hannstar has been very cautious and would choose to build one with its strategic partners, if it was to build one.
More than 94 percent of its Hannstar’s revenues of NT$19.25 billion last quarter were generated by sales of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels used in computers.
HannStar now only operates one fifth-generation plant.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last