Hit by price cuts in June, earnings for Taiwanese big panel makers for the second quarter of this year will be lower than expected, despite mild growth in shipments quarter-on-quarter, market researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday.
A IDC report said that although panel makers’ output reduction would help bring supply in line with demand, output could recover in the third quarter as long as downstream factories’ stocks are not exhausted.
Although the sector’s output continued to grow in the second quarter, panel prices tumbled and orders fell in June because of mounting stocks in the hands of major brands and contract manufacturers and the uncertain outlook for the downstream market in the third quarter, the report said.
Output for the second quarter reached 54.84 million units, 6.7 percent up from the first quarter. Nevertheless, falling prices meant that the total output value fell 1.1 percent.
Hit by rising oil prices, inflation and the US subprime mortgage crisis, cautious consumers in the main regional markets have been spending less, impacting demand for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors and flat-screen TVs. Consequently, OEM/ODM and big brand makers who built up stocks based on optimistic forecasts for LCD panel demand in the second half of the year now see a dimmer outlook and need to reduce their stocks, causing a big drop in prices, orders and earnings in the second quarter.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
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