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.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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