Global shipments of large flat panels last month fell more than 10 percent from the previous month, a reflection of the traditional slow season effect, according to a TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) report published yesterday.
Shipments of large flat panels last month totaled 65.16 million units, down 10.4 percent from a month earlier, but up 27 percent year-on-year.
Large flat panels are used in televisions, desktop computer and notebook computer screens.
In the report, the market information advisory firm said TV brands slowed their pace of restocking in the past month, reducing their inventories as a cushion against the slow season impact, so that shipments for TV panels during the period fell 5.9 percent month-on-month to 18.64 million units.
Shipments of panels for information technology devices were also affected by the slow-season effect, following the massive restocking seen in the fourth quarter of last year, TrendForce said.
Broken down by category, shipments of monitor panels for the month fell 14.4 percent from December last year to 12.64 million units, while shipments of panels for notebooks and netbooks dropped 32.9 percent to 12.61 million units, the firm said.
However, shipments of tablet panels continued to grow last month to 21.26 million units, up about 10 percent from December, due to the wide range of applications in tablet gadgets, including personal entertainment devices, cloud technology-based services and educational use, the firm said.
While Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co were aggressively pushing their tablet products, demand for unbranded devices also appeared to be solid during the month, TrendForce said.
Shipments of panels for Apple’s iPad fell last month due to inventory adjustments, but shipments of displays for the iPad mini grew about 10 percent month-on-month, it said.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)