Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技), which holds a 23 percent stake in the US’ No. 2 TV brand, Vizio Inc, yesterday said it would stick to this year’s target of shipments of 6 million units, pinning its hopes on sales of Vizio TVs in the price-sensitive US market.
Amtran expects to hit the low end of its original target of shipments of between 6 million and 7 million LCD TV units this year, about 40 percent higher than last year’s 4.3 million units.
Amtran only shipped 1.6 million LCD TV units in the first half of this year, down 16 percent from 1.9 million units a year earlier, blaming constraints on supplies of key components, such as flat panels, and labor shortages in China.
“Those problems have improved,” Amtran chairman Alpha Wu (吳春發) said yesterday. “Our factories are now running at high capacity to produce 20,000 or 30,000 televisions a day.”
Wu said he was positive about fourth-quarter demand and expected quarterly shipments would grow faster than in the same period last year, when Amtran’s shipments expanded almost 30 percent quarter-on-quarter to 1.16 million units.
“We are positive about fourth-quarter demand, as Vizio is selling TVs at affordable prices, which will be less affected by the economic uncertainty,” Wu said. “[Customer demand for] Thanksgiving and Christmas look ok.”
Wu said about 70 percent of TVs made by Amtran would be shipped to Vizio this year and the company aims to reduce the share to about 60 percent next year by attracting more orders from South Korean and Chinese TV makers.
Amtran is set to start making and selling TVs next year for Japanese firm Victor Company of Japan Ltd under the JVC brand, based on a memorandum of understanding signed last Friday.
Wu said the firm is also exploring new markets and could start shipping TVs to one of the top brands in India next year.
LCD TV penetration rate is still very low in India — about one out of 100 TVs there is an LCD TV, Wu said, citing an unspecified survey.
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