Innolux Corp (群創光電), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, shipped 52 percent more ultra-high-definition 4K TV panels last month, supported by strong demand from Chinese TV brands during the holiday shopping season, market researcher WitsView said in a report yesterday.
Innolux has strategically pushed 4K LCD TV panels to compete with bigger South Korean rivals LG Display Co and Samsung Electronics Co, which focus on OLED panels. The resolution of 4K TV panels are four times higher than that of full high-definition TV panels.
Last month saw Innolux’s total shipments of 4K TV panels reach 1 million units from the time of their launch at the start of the year, making it the world’s biggest 4K TV panel supplier, WitsView analyst Jeffy Chen (陳建安) said in the report.
RECORD HIGHS
Global shipments of 4K TV panels jumped 39 percent last month to a record 530,000 units from 380,000 units in August, said WitsView, the LCD research division of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
“Continuously growing demand from Chinese brands is behind the significant growth,” Chen said.
Innolux, which holds a 55 percent share of the global 4K TV panel market, said in August that it expected 4K panels to account for half of its total TV panel shipments next year, compared with an estimated 10 percent this year.
The company plans to more than double its output of 4K TV panels to 500,000 units a month by the end of this year, from 200,000 units currently.
WitsView predicted last month that 4K TV panels would account for less than 1 percent of overall TV panel shipments this year and would increase to 2 percent next year after the price of 4K TV panels drops to 1.3 times of full HD TV panels.
CONTRACTION AHEAD
Global TV panel shipments grew 1.3 percent last month to 19.578 million units from 19.32 million units in August, but the figure is expected to contract by 4 to 5 percent sequentially this month as restocking demand ended last month, WitsView said.
Meanwhile, global shipments of panels used in monitors and laptops would decline by 4 percent and 9 percent month-on-month this month, respectively, after they shrank 4.1 percent and 9 percent month-on-month to 13.53 million units and 15.08 million units last month, according to the report.
Innolux shares dropped 0.88 percent to NT$11.25 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which slid 0.43 percent.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
RSS