Shares in LG Display Co, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, rose the most in almost two months in Seoul trading on speculation that panel prices will halt their decline this month as manufacturers cut output.
LG Display climbed 11 percent to close at 23,400 won (US$17.71) on the Korea Exchange in Seoul, the biggest advance since Nov. 7.
The benchmark KOSPI index gained 2.9 percent.
Prices of notebook and television panels are expected to be flat this month after declining for the past six months, David Hsieh (謝勤益), an analyst at researcher DisplaySearch, said on Wednesday.
Some LCD makers have raised prices of computer monitor panels to their customers this month, Hsieh said.
PRODUCTION CUTS
LG Display, Sharp Corp and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) are cutting back production as the global recession erodes demand and panel prices slump. LG Display last month reduced its profitability forecast because of a bigger-than-expected decline in prices.
“Monitor panel prices have a chance to stop dropping in January as panel makers are forced to minimize their losses,” Taipei-based researcher WitsView Technology Corp said on Wednesday.
Prices of 19-inch LCD monitor panels declined 42 percent from July to last month, while 37-inch television screens fell 38 percent, WitsView said.
LAY-OFFS
In related news, Taiwanese flat-panel maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) plans to lay off between 3 percent and 5 percent of its full-time employees before the Lunar New Year, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Chi Mei, the nation’s second-largest flat panel maker by revenues after AU Optronics, said the workforce reduction was necessary because of a slump in demand caused by the global economic downturn, the newspaper cited a Chi Mei official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying.
Last month, Chi Mei sacked nearly 3,000 temporary workers after a slowing economy cut into demand. At the time, the Tainan-based company said its permanent staff would not be affected by its downsizing plans.
It is estimated that around 900 of the company’s 17,000 full-time employees could receive pink slips before the holidays, the report said.
The Economic Daily News said Chi Mei had no plans to cut its workforce by a larger amount.
The company would instead work to adjust its production capacity and organizational structure to comply with current market conditions, the report said.
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
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
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