AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday said revenue slid 3.4 percent last month after shipments of PC and TV LCD panels dropped nearly 4 percent month-on-month in a bumpy industrial recovery.
Revenue fell to NT$30.36 billion (US$1.03 billion) last month from March’s NT$31.44 billion, which was the highest level since September last year, AU Optronics’ financial statement showed. On an annual basis, revenue declined 8.5 percent from NT$33.17 billion in April last year.
The Hsinchu-based company said early last month that shipments of TV and PC panels were expected to grow 5 to 15 percent this quarter from last quarter’s 27.3 million units after its business hit bottom in the first three months.
Shipments of tablet and handset panels declined 17.4 percent month-on-month to 10.92 million units.
Average selling price would rise by up to 5 percent this quarter from last quarter’s US$649 per square meter, the company said.
Company president Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told investors at the time that supplies of certain flat panels became tight recently and he expected the supply-and-demand situation to return to a healthy level in the second half of this year in the expectation that the launch of Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 8 operating system would spur demand for PCs, Ultrabooks and tablets.
Smaller LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) yesterday said revenue shrank 7.6 percent last month to NT$3.81 billion from NT$4.12 billion in March. That number was an annual decline of about 37.2 percent from NT$6.06 billion in April last year.
HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday posted its best monthly revenue in five months at NT$2.95 billion last month. That represented a monthly increase of 1.6 percent from NT$2.9 billion, or an annual decrease of 24.4 percent from NT$3.9 billion.
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
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