Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, said yesterday revenue declined 7.4 percent last month after shipments of PC and TV panels fell. That was in contrast to the company’s forecast that shipments would remain flat in the seasonally slow quarter.
Revenue dropped to NT$42.1 billion (US$1.45 billion) last month from September’s NT$45.35 billion, according to a company statement, representing a 4.83 percent growth from NT$40.16 billion a year ago.
Shipments of PC and TV panels fell 13 percent to 12.39 million units last month from 14.25 million units in September. Shipments of panels for mobile devices rose 3.5 percent to 39.01 million units from 37.7 million units during the same period.
Wang Jyh-chau (王志超), general manager of Chimei’s Tainan operations, told investors last month that demand for TV panels exceeded its capacity as Chinese TV brands continued inventory buildup to cope with demand after Beijing annouced a new energy-efficient TV subsidy.
The nation’s No. 2 panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), reported a 7 percent decline in revenue for last month at NT$33.45 billion from September’s NT$35.6 billion, after shipments fell 15.7 percent to 9.91 million units.
AUO projected that PC and TV panel shipments would slide by about 5 percent this quarter.
Shipments of small-sized panels dropped 4.4 percent month-on-month to 14 million units, AUO said in a statement on Thursday.
Coretronics Corp (中強光電), a supplier of backlight modules for flat panels, yesterday said revenue slid 2 percent month-on-month to NT$5.41 billion last month from NT$5.52 billion in September, an annual contraction of 20 percent.
Shipments for tablets rocketed 85 percent to 940,000 units last month from a month ago as its customers launched new models, the supplier of modules for Apple Inc’s iPad Mini said in a press release.
Coretronics said the strong growth and 32 percent rise in TV backlight module shipments offset a 20 percent decline in shipments of laptop backlight modules to 2.34 million units last month.
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