LG Display Co, the world’s second-largest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) maker, said the industry may face a “slight” oversupply and it was difficult to predict the supply-and-demand situation.
“China will be the key for demand,” LG Display chief executive officer Kwon Young-soo told reporters at a trade show near Seoul yesterday, without giving a timeframe. “The biggest uncertainty next year will be demand for televisions.”
The Seoul-based panel maker said in August it plans to build an LCD factory in China to meet surging demand for flat-screen TVs in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
China’s TV sales during the eight-day National Day holiday were better than expected, Kwon said.
Last month, DisplaySearch raised its full-year estimate for the global LCD TV market, citing demand from China and North America and as more consumers replace their bulkier glass-tube sets.
Global LCD TV shipments will rise 24 percent to 130 million units, compared with an earlier prediction of 127 million sets, the research firm said. The number of LCD TVs sold in China will likely jump 87 percent to 25 million this year and increase 32 percent next year, DisplaySearch said.
Prices of 37-inch LCD TV panels rose 4 percent as of the second half of last month, compared with three months earlier, estimates at Taipei-based researcher WitsView Technology Corp showed. Prices of 19-inch monitor panels rose 15 percent, while 15.4-inch notebook panels gained 13 percent in the period, WitsView said.
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
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
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