Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, saw its Chinese market share rise to more than 29 percent last month from 27 percent in May as Chinese TV makers increased orders, bucking the Chinese TV market’s broader downtrend, market researcher Displaybank said yesterday.
Demand from China’s major TV brands is expected to be lackluster during China’s next shopping holiday in the first week of October and a recent rebound in panel prices could slow Chinese TV makers’ inventory buildup, the Seoul-based research house said.
Almost all of China’s top-six TV makers, including Haier Co (海爾) and TCL Group Co, bought more panels from Chimei last month, which helped boost Chimei’s LCD TV panel shipments in China by 3.7 percent month-on-month, Displaybank said in a report released yesterday. No detailed shipment figures for Chimei was available at the time of going to press.
Biggest supplier
Reflecting on market share, Displaybank’s statistics showed that Chimei’s 29.3 percent market share of total LCD TV panels sold in China last month outranked rival LG Display Co and made the Taiwanese company the biggest LCD TV panel supplier there. LG Display saw its market share drop to 25.9 percent last month from 27 percent in May, the researcher’s data showed.
Overall, Chinese TV makers’ purchases of LCD panels dropped 5 percent to 3.4 million units last month, from 3.6 million units the previous month. This ended three consecutive months of growth since February, the researcher said.
Changhong Electric Co (長虹) had the biggest reduction in orders last month, down 18.6 percent month-on-month to 500,000 units, the researcher said.
The Chinese firm is one of AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) customers and has formed a TV module venture with AU Optronics in Sichuan Province.
AU Optronics, the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, also operates TV module plants with Haier and TCL in China.
Haier buys more
By contrast, Haier purchased nearly 32 percent more TV panels last month than the previous month, according to Displaybank’s figures.
Collectively, the big four — Chimei, LG Display, Samsung Electronics Co and AU Optronics — accounted for 94.7 percent of LCD TV panel supplies in China last month.
This meant Samsung and AUO together held less than 40 percent share of that market for the month, the researcher’s data showed.
Chimei’s shares dropped 0.29 percent to NT$17.1, while those of AU Optronics advanced 1.43 percent to NT$17.7 yesterday.
The benchmark TAIEX jumped 1.28 percent.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last