Innolux Display Corp (群創光電), which makes liquid-crystal-display (LCD) computer monitors and flat panels, said yesterday it was scaling back its capacity expansion target for a new panel plant next year by one-third given recent economic turbulence.
The Miaoli-based company does not have any plan to lower equipment loading at its existing factories, however.
Innolux plans to process 60,000 sheets of 1,500mm x 1,850mm motherglass at a sixth-generation plant now under construction, down from its original plan of 90,000 sheets, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, confirming a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday.
The plant is scheduled to ramp up production in the second quarter of next year.
Further capacity expansion will depend on market demand, said Innolux, whose share price closed limit-up at NT$38.70 yesterday.
Meanwhile, the board of HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), the nation’s fifth-biggest flat panel maker, yesterday gave the go-ahead to an NT$853 million buyback program to safeguard shareholder interests.
HannStar plans to repurchase as many as 138 million shares, about 2.5 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares, at between NT$5.78 and NT$10 per share from today through Dec. 14, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The new share repurchase program may cost HannStar NT$853 millionbased on the stock's closing price of NT$6.18 yesterday.
HannStar stressed that the share buyback plan will have any negativeimpact on its financial structure as the price range is quitereasonable. The announcement came at a time when analysts expect someflat panel makers may start making losses for the third quarter.
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