The prices of LCD panels used in slim-screen TVs dropped again in the second half of this month as oversupply worsened after China’s removal of a TV purchase subsidy program stalled demand, a report by market researcher NPD DisplaySearch’s shows.
Flat panel producers only scaled down factory loading rates this month, the researcher said.
Beijing put an end to a subsidy program for TV purchases on May 31 and unexpectedly did not roll out a new subsidy program.
“Excess panel supply remains an issue for TV makers,” the US research house said in the report released on Saturday.
Taking advantage of excessive supply, TV makers would continue to ask for “aggressive” price reductions to build inventory for seasonal promotions later this year, the researcher said.
The price for a half-finished mainstream 32-inch TV panel dropped 2 percent to US$95 per unit in the second half of this month, from US$97 per unit two weeks ago, NPD DisplaySearch’s statistics showed. The price for 40-inch and 42-inch TV panels also fell 2 percent to US$257 per unit during the same period of time, according to the statistics.
The price figures released by WitsView, a Taipei-based LCD industry research team of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), on Friday showed more drastic price reductions.
The prices for LCD TV panels slid between 1 percent and 3.2 percent in the second half of this month from the first half, with the mainstream 32-inch panels suffering the brunt, WitsView said.
TV manufacturers sidestepped buying more TV panels amid speculation about deep price decline in flat panels, which triggered a deeper-than-expected price drop this month, WitsView said.
To cope with the downward spiral of flat panel prices, flat panel producers are expected to lower their factory utilization by between 10 percent and 20 percent through the next few quarters to the first quarter of next year, WitsView said. WitsView expected demand to come back next month as TV brands boost panel inventory for October’s shopping spree in China and Black Friday shopping in the US.
Citigroup analyst Arthur Lai (賴昱璋) last week downgraded the nation’s two biggest LCD panel producers, Innolux Corp (群創光電) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), to “sell” from “buy,” saying weak TV demand from China, the world’s biggest LCD TV market, would cause inventory correction in the final quarter of this year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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