Shares of AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) and Innolux Corp (群創光電), two of Taiwan’s leading flat-panel makers, moved lower yesterday morning on declining TV panel prices, dealers said.
Foreign institutional selling in the two stocks on Tuesday dampened market sentiment toward their prospects amid concerns that the weakness in pricing power will erode their profitability, they said.
Shares of AUO and Innolux fell 1.62 percent and 1.84 percent to NT$9.11 and NT$10.65 respectively yesterday. The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) was up 0.3 percent.
“It was no surprise that investors rushed to dump the two stocks this morning after flat-panel prices continued to fall in the second half of January [from the first half],” Asia Securities Investment Consultant (亞洲投顧) analyst Chang Chih-cheng (張智誠) said.
In a research note released on Tuesday, flat-panel market advisory firm DisplaySearch said prices of 40 to 50 inch TV panels fell US$2 to US$4 in the second half of January from the first half of the month because of escalating competition.
WitsView, another flatscreen research organization, predicted shipments of LCD TVs in the current quarter, traditionally a slow season for the sector, will drop about 26 percent from the previous quarter, depressing prices even further. It also warned of a pending supply surfeit as Chinese competitors gear up to launch 8.5 generation plants, which focus on the manufacturing of large-sized screens. TV panels account for big shares of the two companies’ revenues, so assessments on TV shipments hurt investor confidence in the stocks, dealers said. In the third quarter, TV panels accounted for 44 percent of AUO’s sales and 45 percent of Innolux’s sales.
“Seeing the weakening pricing power, foreign institutional investors sold off AUO and Innolux shares yesterday, prompting other investors to dump the two stocks today,” Chang said.
According to the TWSE, foreign institutional investors sold a net 1.71 million AUO shares and a net 22.44 million Innolux shares on Tuesday. AUO’s US depositary receipts fell 0.98 percent on Wall Street overnight.
“If there is a silver lining, it’s that AUO is devoting more effort to produce small and medium-sized panels to tap the still booming smartphone and tablet markets in a bid to offset the impact of falling TV screen prices,” Chang said.
AUO announced last week that it would build a sixth generation plant in Kunshan, China, to accommodate growing demand for non-TV panels. It said the plant, planned to begin operations in 2016, will be equipped to produce high-end flat panels using advanced low-temperature polycrystalline silicon technology.
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
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the