Large panel shipments continued to grow last month, in part driven by strong demand for large-sized LCD televisions, the research consultancy WitsView said on Friday.
A total of 69.07 million large panels (32-inches or above) were shipped worldwide last month, up 9.8 percent from July and up 15 percent from a year ago, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report.
The rise was fueled in part by China’s ongoing subsidy policy for energy-saving products, including televisions. In addition, with the peak promotional period of the Mid-Autumn Festival (Sept. 30) and China’s National Day (Oct. 1) fast approaching, brand vendors aggressively boosted purchases and lifted panel shipments to 20.66 million units, an increase of 12 percent from July.
The response to the subsidy program is likely to push the average TV panel size to 36.5 inches this year, after edging higher from 33.6 inches and 34.5 inches from 2009 to last year, WitsView said.
This trend toward bigger panel sizes should significantly help digest the current surplus in global LCD panel production capacity, the researcher said.
Meanwhile, affected by larger inventory restocking from downstream brand vendors, shipments of monitor panels, which are also considered “large panels,” totaled 15.33 million units last month, up 13 percent from a month ago, WitsView said.
Shipments of large notebook panels, considered to be those above 12.1 inches, were lifted by Windows 8 pre-launch demand to 18.47 million units last month, up 11.7 percent from July, while shipments of large tablet panels (7 to 10 inch models) increased 8.3 percent to 12.33 million units, WitsView said.
Looking to this month, WitsView predicted that overall large panel shipments will be relatively flat, with growth ranging from 0-1 percent amid inventory adjustments by brand name vendors.
Only tablet panels will show double-digit growth, while other applications will experience slower or negative growth, the researcher said.
Semiconductor stocks on Friday took a beating after a grim profit warning from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc sparked fresh worries about the US’ earnings power as the country is potentially heading for a recession. Despite a broader stock market rally, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 3.8 percent after Micron, the largest maker of memory semiconductors in the US, flagged that demand was cooling for chips used in computers and smartphones. The index — which is home to US chip giants Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, as well as Micron — is down 38 percent this year. Historically, semiconductor
WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY: Costco Wholesale said it expected the purchase of the remaining 45 percent stake to add 1 to 1.5 percent to its earnings per share US-based Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday said that it had purchased the remaining 45 percent stake in Costco President Taiwan Inc (台灣好市多) for US$1.05 billion, making the local company a fully-owned unit. “We estimate that the purchase would add about 1 to 1.5 percent to [our] earnings per share,” Costco said in a statement. Costco President Taiwan was established as a joint venture with Kaohsiung-based President Group (大統集團), which held a 45 percent stake. Since the first Costco store opened in Kaohsiung in 1997, 14 outlets have been set up in Taiwan, company data showed. PROFITABLE Three Costco stores in Taiwan — in Taipei’s Neihu
MOBILITY SOLUTIONS: Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its ecosystem through the platform, the Taiwanese firm said India’s Tata Technologies Ltd has become the latest member of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) MIH Open Platform to jointly develop sustainable mobility solutions for customers worldwide, the Taiwanese company said yesterday. It might include embedded and electrical, electric platform development and battery management system solutions, among others, Hon Hai said. Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its electric-vehicle (EV) ecosystem through the MIH platform, it said. The open platform has about 2,380 members around the world, with an aim to jointly develop EV ecosystems and shrink the time to market for products. Hon Hai made the
SOARING PROFITS: Semiconductors and shipping have knocked automaking and construction out of the 10 highest paying industries, stock exchange data showed Mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) posted an average of NT$5.15 million (US$173,249) in annual compensation for non-managerial employees last year, marking the highest among all firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), exchange data showed. That is a 66 percent increase from the company’s average compensation of NT$3.08 million in 2020, as its earnings per share (EPS) expanded from NT$26.01 in 2020 to NT$70.56 last year. That is also three times higher than the average compensation of NT$1.7 million in the nation’s semiconductor industry, the data showed. The increases helped MediaTek advance its ranking from third in 2020, replacing