Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) shares shot up 6.87 percent yesterday on speculation that the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker would make as much as NT$50 billion (US$1.72 billion) next year on the back of rising shipments.
Chimei’s stock price rose to NT$15.5, its highest level since March, on expectations that the company would be the first local panel maker to emerge from a run of chronic losses next year. The TAIEX inched up 0.87 percent.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday reported that Chimei aimed to make between NT$30 billion and NT$50 billion in net profit next year by boosting shipments of flat panels used in televisions, monitors and mobile devices, citing unspecified sources.
The report said Chimei also aimed to expand revenues by 10 percent to NT$550 billion next year.
In a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Chimei spokesman Lin Chen-hui (林振輝) said the report was incorrect.
Shares of the nation’s No. 2 flat panel maker; AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), also soared yesterday, rising 6.9 percent to NT$13.95 due to resilient demand for LCD TV panels.
Global shipments of LCD panels grew 2.6 percent month-on-month to an all-time high of 22.09 million units last month, compared with October’s 21.53 million, local research house TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
This year, LCD television panel shipments are expected to increase 10 percent annually to 23 million units, boosted by Chinese government subsidies on energy-efficient slim-screen TVs and growing demand for larger TVs after Vizio Inc rolled out a 60-inch LCD television for just US$688 during the Black Friday holiday shopping season in the US, TrendForce said.
AUO yesterday dismissed a report by the Economic Daily News that a power supply problem was likely to cut the company’s shipments by 20 percent this month. The report said power issues on Tuesday disrupted manufacturing at the company’s factories in Greater Taichung, where it operates six plants.
“Most Greater Taichung factories have recovered and there is no impact on shipments expected this month,” AUO spokesman Andy Yang (楊本豫) said in a separate filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), which supplies touch panels to Apple Inc, yesterday said it planned to recruit 100 medium and high-ranking workers in China and Taiwan to help it quickly expand capacity and increase the manufacture of value-added products to meet demand.
TPK said the new employees would work in its research and development, manufacturing, management and sales departments.
The company, which employs more than 50,000 workers globally, said the recruitment is expected to be completed within three months.
On the bourse, TPK shares dropped 0.4 percent to NT$500 yesterday.
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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