Taiwanese liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers lost market share to bigger South Korean rivals last month as the weakening won helped the Koreans undercut prices in the latest industrial slump, market researcher DisplaySearch said in its latest report.
Last month, Taiwanese LCD panel suppliers, including top player AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), held 34.3 percent of the overall computer and television flat-panel shipments market share, down 5.3 percentage points from 39.6 percent in October, statistics compiled by the Austin, Texas-based researcher showed.
Further widening their lead over Taiwanese companies, South Korean competitors including LG Display Co Ltd increased their shares by 3.1 percentage points to 50.9 percent last month, compared to 47.8 percent in October, the report showed.
“A combination of slow demand, the tendency of leading brands to favor internal sources of supply and depreciation of the Korean won has disadvantaged Taiwanese panel suppliers, leading to a loss of market share,” DisplaySearch said in the report released on Friday.
DisplaySearch did not provide detailed currency information. The New Taiwan dollar depreciated 0.18 percent versus the US dollar to NT$32.53 on Friday, while the won was down 0.21 percent against the US dollar.
“The TFT LCD industry is going through the hardest time in a decade, as shipments and revenues dramatically decline,” David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president of DisplaySearch, said in the report.
Global LCD panel PC and TV shipments fell 25 percent year-on-year to 28.5 million units last month, marking its lowest level in six months, with PC monitor shipments battered by economic slowdowns, the DisplaySearch report showed.
Decline in revenues is more drastic as panel prices are in a nonstop downward spiral. Overall revenues plunged 50 percent year-on-year to US$3.8 billion, the weakest since July of 2006, the researcher said.
Prices for mainstream 19-inch LCD PC wide-format panels are expected to drop another 6.4 percent, or US$4, to average US$59 per unit in the second half of this month from two weeks ago, another survey by DisplaySearch indicated, blaming oversupply and shrinking demand amid economic recession.
Prices for mainstay 32-inch LCD TV panels may slide by 11 percent, or US$20, to average US$165 during the same period, the latest survey showed.
“The industry will need to take additional steps to reduce capacity utilization, since falling panel prices are not stimulating demand under the current economic conditions,” Hsieh said.
To cope with the weak demand, Taiwanese panel makers have lowered capacity utilization to below 60 percent, while South Korean manufacturers have cut utilization rate to less than 80 percent, DisplaySearch said.
“Continuing to reduce panel prices will cause continued pain for the whole supply chain, including panel makers, materials makers and set makers,” Hsieh said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure