Weighed down by antitrust lawsuit costs, flat panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) sank into red in the fourth quarter, but said the outlook for this year was promising thanks to rising demand for its integrated multi-touch panels.
The company posted losses of NT$4.3 billion (US$130.4 million) last quarter, an improvement from losses of NT$8.2 billion in the same period a year ago, but a drastic reversal from earnings of NT$491 million in the third quarter of last year.
The company wrote off litigation costs of NT$1.6 billion for the price-fixing probes, including one initiated by the US Department of Justice.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Taiwan’s largest maker of liquid- crystal-display panels which last week said it had set aside about NT$10 billion for defense in the same lawsuit, also posted losses in the fourth quarter.
HannStar’s fourth-quarter sales were NT$14.1 billion, a rise of more than 150 percent from a year ago, but down 20 percent from the third quarter.
Looking ahead, HannStar president David Joe (周定輝) told a Webcast investor conference yesterday that he was “cautiously optimistic” on first-quarter prospects, which would be mainly driven by Chinese demand for consumer electronics, including monitors, notebooks and handsets, as the Lunar New Year approaches.
Average selling prices (ASP) of its panels should see single-digit increase from the fourth quarter, he said.
The company’s panel shipments declined 8.3 percent sequentially to 4.8 million units in the fourth quarter, with ASP down 11.7 percent to US$91.
HannStar started to switch focus in 2008 to small and medium-sized panels — ranging from two inches to below 20 inches — to avoid tight competition in the market for large-sized panels. It began to supply panels for mobile phones last November and is targeting the world’s top five handset brands to expand its client base.
The company is in the middle of integrating multi-touch technology into panels, which it said would help contribute to revenue improvement. Shipments of multi-touch panels are expected to ramp up in the second half, it said.
The company would also launch TVs carrying its “HannsG” logo this year to add to its branded monitor offerings, it said. Shipments of own-brand monitors and TVs would be around 3.5 million and 500,000 units respectively, with the US, Europe and China the major target markets.
Capital expenditure would increase nearly nine-fold to NT$6 billion this year, as it plans to set up a touch panel factory to cope with rising demand, it said.
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