The liquid-crystal display (LCD) industry is expected to enjoy healthy growth this year and next year, helped by rapidly growing demand for slim-screen televisions, market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday.
But LG Display Co Ltd’s recent plan to build a new sixth-generation (6G) plant, which is scheduled to ramp up production in the second half of next year, could slow the panel price hikes, IDC said.
“We are bullish about the LCD industry in 2008 and 2009 as demand for LCD TVs is growing really fast,” IDC display analyst Annabelle Hsu (徐美雯) said in an interview yesterday.
That was also reflected in new capacity expansion plans by major players, including the world’s biggest LCD panel maker Samsung Electronics Co and Taiwan’s AU Optronics Co (友達光電), Hsu said.
LCD TV sales may expand by 41 percent to about 102 million units this year from last year’s 72 million units and may grow by another 28 percent to 131 million, Hsu said.
Hsu factored in the potential impact of the weakened economy on consumer purchasing of LCD TVs in the US, the world’s second-largest LCD TV market.
Hsu expected unspecified price hikes for 32-inch and smaller-sized TV screens starting in the third quarter.
“The supply and demand situation will be healthy in the second half,” Hsu said.
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Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has triggered a seismic reshuffling of global equity markets, with Taiwan and South Korea muscling past European nations one by one. With its stock market now valued at nearly US$4.3 trillion, Taiwan surpassed the UK, Europe’s biggest market, earlier this month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. South Korea is about US$140 billion away from doing the same. The tech-heavy Asian markets have shot past Germany and France in the past seven months. The shift is largely down to massive gains in shares of three companies that provide essential hardware for AI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電),
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
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