Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s top LCD panel maker, yesterday posted its seventh consecutive quarterly loss as panel prices and shipments continued to drop amid sluggish demand for flat-panel TVs and PCs.
However, losses narrowed to NT$12.77 billion (US$436.9 million) in the first quarter, compared with losses of NT$13.80 billion a year earlier and NT$20.31 billion in the previous quarter, the Miaoli-based company’s financial report showed.
The results were worse than the NT$11.88 billion loss predicted by Credit Suisse, but better than the average loss of NT$14.95 billion forecast by most analysts.
Chimei Innolux, the world’s third-largest LCD panelmaker after Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co, said loss per share was NT$1.75 in the first three months. That compares with a loss per share of NT$2.73 in the previous three months and NT$1.80 the same period last year, the report showed.
“The outlook in the second quarter will be better than the first quarter,” Chimei chairman Tuan Hsing-chien (段行建) told an online conference yesterday.
Average selling prices (ASPs) will rise slightly this quarter from the first quarter, Tuan said, after the company saw ASPs for TV and PC panels decline 3.37 percent to US$86 per unit last quarter from US$89 per unit a quarter ago and NT$101 per unit one year ago.
Chimei forecast panel shipments would increase by 10 to 20 percent quarter-on-quarter, and the factory utilization rate would move above 90 percent this quarter, as customers rebuild inventory and new product launches stimulate demand.
“Shipments of large-sized panels in the second quarter are -expected to rise by 10 to 20 percent from the first quarter, and those of small to medium-sized panels should also increase by the same range,” Tuan said.
“Utilization rate is likely to reach above 90 percent this quarter, up from 80 percent to 85 percent in the first quarter,” he added.
The company will gradually shift its focus to 39-inch and 50-inch TV panels amid its continued efforts to adjust product mix and will develop higher-margin products such as touch sensors and OLED screens in a bid to improve profitability, Tuan said, adding that the company already terminated its lower-margin system assembly business at the end of March.
The company also hopes to improve its margins this quarter, chief financial officer Eddie Chen (陳彥松) said at the conference, after Chimei reported a gross margin of minus-6.2 percent and operating margin of minus-11.1 percent in the first quarter.
In the prior quarter, the company’s gross margin and operating margin were minus-8.2 percent and minus-13.2 percent respectively.
Chen said Chimei would strive to manage its capital expenditure this year under NT$30 billion, compared with NT$50 billion for last year.
Commenting on the alliance between Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Sharp Corp announced in late March, Tuan said it certainly would “increase the chances of Chimei’s cooperation with the Japanese company,” but he declined to elaborate. Chimei is a subsidiary of Hon Hai, the world’s largest maker of electronics parts.
In the first quarter, Chimei reported a consolidated revenue of NT$109.24 billion, down 16.23 percent from NT$130.41 billion in the fourth quarter of last year and 12.14 percent from NT$124.33 billion a year earlier.
TV panels accounted for 36 percent of its first-quarter output and panels used in handsets and tablets contributed 24 percent. About 25 percent of its panel output was used in desktop monitors and 11 percent for notebook computers, the report showed.
Shares of Chimei fell 2.42 percent to NT$12.10 before the company’s earnings announcement.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”