Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管), the nation’s No. 3 liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel manufacturer, sank into the red in the fourth quarter, with losses reaching NT$11.98 billion.
Following the massive losses, the Taoyuan-based company said it would focus this year on raising its profit margin by adjusting its product mix, riding on the increasing demand for products such as digital TVs, all-in-one PCs and netbooks, president Kay Chiu (邱創儀) told investors yesterday.
DIGITAL DEMAND
The company did not provide first-quarter guidance for its large-screen panel business unit, but vice president Brian Lee (李學龍) said he expected the unit to grow thanks to the popularity of screens with 16:9 aspect ratio used in digital and high-definition TVs as well as computer monitors.
For TV panels, CPT expects its 32-inch and 37-inch models to gain momentum as countries such as the US and China adopt the digital TV format.
As for notebooks and desktop monitors, CPT expects 15.6-inch panels to be the future notebook standard, while 18.5-inch and 21.5-inch panels are likely to prevail in the all-in-one PC market, as shown in the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Lee said.
Meanwhile, vice president Lin Sheng-chang (林盛昌), in charge of the small and medium-sized panel business unit, said sharp growth in smartphones and netbooks would be the primary sales drivers this year.
INVENTORY
However, Lin expects shipments to grow only after the second quarter as global PC vendors are still busy digesting inventories.
“As average selling prices fell below cost for CPT, we carefully screened out orders in the fourth quarter, resulting in a quarterly sales loss of 36.9 percent to NT$16.57 billion.” Chiu told investors yesterday.
Lin said the mobile handset market appeared to have diverged into two low-end and high-end devices.
Riding on this trend, his department is focusing on production of 2-inch and 3-inch LCDs for low-end and high-end handsets respectively.
IMPROVEMENTS
While fourth-quarter results were disappointing, Chiu said the company saw an improvement in its cash and inventory position. Its cash equivalents reached NT$24.12 billion, while its inventory dropped by NT$4 billion sequentially.
Shipments of large-screen panels reached 3.5 million units, while small and medium-sized panels totaled 11.2 million units in the fourth quarter, representing quarterly declines of 38 percent and 35 percent respectively.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last