AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world’s third-largest maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, yesterday cut its fourth-quarter forecast, citing a persistent economic slump and weaker-than-expected demand.
Shipments of PC and TV panels could plunge by around 30 percent in this quarter from 20.7 million units shipped in the third quarter. In late October, AU Optronics had said it expected a drop between 5 percent and 9 percent.
“Based on our information and market conditions, the previous analysis on Oct. 23, 2008, is not applicable,” AU Optronics said in a statement yesterday.
Average panel prices may fall by 25 percent quarter on quarter, the Hsinchu-based company said, revising its earlier forecast of 13 percent.
To cope with stagnant demand, the company said it could reduce its manufacturing to 60 percent of capacity in the final quarter of the year from 70 percent projected in October.
“The revision indicates that market demand is obviously far worse than most people had expected, since panel makers are eager to clean up inventories at prices much lower than cost,” said Jeff Pu (蒲得宇), a flat-panel industry analyst with Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券).
Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s No. 2 flat-panel maker, followed suit by forecasting a bigger-than-expected quarterly decline in TV and PC panel shipments in the fourth-quarter, citing slowing demand. The Tainan-based panel maker predicted a drop of between 35 percent and 40 percent, up from its forecast of 10 percent to 15 percent more than a month ago.
Meanwhile, AU Optronics and Chi Mei yesterday posted NT$17.75 billion and NT$12.23 billion respectively in sales for last month, down 67 and percent 66 percent from a year earlier, while both firms said PC and TV shipments fell about 30 percent month-on-month.
Pu expected AU Optronics' fourth-quarter losses to be bigger than hisforecast of NT$12 billion two weeks ago. Chi Mei could see quarterlylosses widen to more than NT$16 billion this quarter.
Battered by the sluggish economy, small panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) said yesterday it was considering shutting down its production of panels for PC monitors next month after equipment loading plunged to 50 percent and sales dipped to a four-year low at NT$2 billion last month.
Panels for PC monitors accounted for 95 percent of the company’s revenues in the third quarter, but HannStar is shifting production to make small panels for consumer electronics.
Shares of AU Optronics and Chi Mei rebounded by 6.8 percent and 6 percent respectively to NT$21.2 and NT$9.54 yesterday, but still represented a drop of 65 percent and 78 percent since the beginning of the year.
In the first half of this month, average prices of panels for PCs and TVs dropped another 5 percent to 10 percent from two weeks ago as demand remained weak, Taipei-based market researcher WitsView said yesterday.
WitsView is an LCD panel market researching division of local research house DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技).
“As the pressure from falling into deeper losses mounts, panel makers are forced to sell products at prices lower than manufacturing costs to generate cash,” WitsView said in a report yesterday.
The price of 37-inch LCD TV panels slid the most, by 10 percent to US$270 on average per unit in the first half of the month from two weeks ago.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six