Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s second-largest maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, expects prices to stabilize in the fourth quarter on the back of healthy inventory and recovering demand, a company executive said yesterday.
The comments came amid renewed worries of a price plunge in the final quarter as prices appear to lose momentum after an uptrend forecast by market researcher DisplaySearch for next month.
“The price trend will largely depend on [channel] inventory levels, which are at an acceptable level now,” Chi Mei president Wang Jyh-chau (王志超) told a press conference. “We are seeing recovering demand along with the improving global economy.”
Insufficient supplies of mother glasses would help limit production increases and avoid excessive supply, the Tainan-based company said.
“The fourth quarter will be a stable period after the industry returns to normal seasonality,” Wang said.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics did not change its third-quarter outlook. Prices for PC and TV panels could rise between 10 percent and 15 percent this quarter as supply could not keep up with demand, compared with US$106 per unit in the second quarter.
Prices for PC monitors and TVs are expected to be flat in the first half of next month, compared with the second half of this month, DisplaySearch said in its latest survey.
The price of a 32-inch TV panel could be unchanged at US$215 per unit in the middle of next month after prices rose by more than 30 percent since February, the survey showed.
Abandoning its previous strategy of aggressive capacity expansion, Chi Mei said it had learned a lesson from the economic downturn and was in no rush to resume construction of its first 8.5-generation plant, citing an unsatisfactory financial performance.
Chi Mei reported a fourth straight quarterly loss — of NT$8.84 billion (US$269.5 million) — for the three-month period ending in June.
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