Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation’s third-largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel supplier, yesterday said sales last month plunged by more than 70 percent amid contracting demand and falling prices in the economic downturn.
But, as monitor panel inventories are on the wane, the company is poised to hike prices soon, said Brian Lee (李學龍), a vice president of Chunghwa Picture.
Sales last month nosedived to NT$3.59 billion (US$110 million), down 74.4 percent from a year ago, setting an all-time low since Chunghwa Picture transformed into a flat-panel manufacturer from a traditional cathode tube (CRT) maker less than a decade ago.
The figure represents a 32.7 percent month-on-month drop, a company press release issued yesterday said. That brought total fourth quarter revenues for last year to NT$16.44 billion, down 64 percent from NT$45.83 billion in the same period of 2007.
Shipments of computer and TV LCD panels decreased by 62 percent year-on-year to 853,000 sheets last month.
The reduction may partly result from output cuts as the company temporarily shuttered a computer screens plant last month to cope with shrinking demand and to save costs.
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