AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the third-largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel maker in the world, yesterday posted its highest monthly sales in about one-and-half years as price rose on recovering demand and limited supply.
AUO’s sales grew 19.7 percent last month to NT$41.08 billion (US$1.28 billion), from NT$34.32 billion in September last year, the most since the company made NT$44.3 billion in May last year.
The Hsinchu-based panel maker made NT$111.34 billion in revenues in the third quarter, up 7 percent year-on-year, or 35 percent quarter-on-quarter.
That was slightly lower than the NT$113. 32 billion estimated by HSBC Securities analyst Frank Su (蘇穀祥), who is optimistic compared with most LCD analysts.
The company shipped 28.9 percent more computer and TV flat-panels — 26.71 million units — in the quarter ending Sept. 30 compared with a year earlier, setting an all-time high.
On quarterly basis, the shipments represented about 19.2 percent growth, almost reaching the high end of the range between 15 percent and 20 percent growth forecast by AUO.
The company said in late July that prices for computer and TV panels might rise between 10 percent and 15 percent quarter on quarter because stronger-than-expected recovery has caused short supply in the traditionally holiday shopping season.
AUO said factories would run to full capacity in the third quarter to cope with rising demand from China and other markets.
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管), the nation’s No.3 flat-panel maker, said yesterday that last month’s sales plunged 32 percent year-on-year, a drop of 5.7 percent month-on-month, ending seven months of increases.
Overall, CPT made NT$19.26 billion in the July to September period, a contraction of 45 percent from NT$35.15 a year ago. On quarterly based, it translated to a 62 percent jump after 38 percent growth in PC and TV panel shipments.
Panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) said sales rose 1.9 percent year-on-year, a drop of 11.5 percent month-on-month, to NT$5.4 billion last month. That brought its third-quarter revenues to NT$17.56 billion, a 17 percent rise over last year.
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
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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