Global shipments of LCD TV and PC panels grew 11 percent last month from February, thanks to increasing demand for TV panels ahead of the Labor Day holiday in China, market researcher WitsView said yesterday.
Panel shipments rose to 66.57 million units last month from 59.79 million units, said WitsView, TrendForce Corp’s (集邦科技) flat-panel research arm.
TV panel shipments surged 22.4 percent sequentially to 20.99 million units last month from February’s 17.15 million units, boosted by demand for ultra-high-definition, or 4K2K, panels, which soared 1.75 times to 1.06 million units last month from February, the researcher said.
“Restocking demand for China’s Labor Day holiday and the launch of new television sets by global brands has spurred demand for 4K2K LCD panels,” WitsView analyst Jeffry Chen (陳建安) wrote in a report.
Although 4K2K TVs’ penetration rate rose to 5.3 percent last month from 2 percent in February, Taiwan’s Innolux Corp (群創光電) and AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) saw their combined market share in the ultra-high-definition panel sector drop to 50 percent last month from 55 percent the previous month, amid growing competition from South Korean rivals, WitsView said.
South Korean panel makers’ share of the market expanded to 41 percent last month from 35 percent in February, as they began ramping up production of 4K2K TV panels smaller than 50 inches, the report said.
Last year, Innolux had a 64 percent share of the 4K2K panel segment, followed by AUO with 12 percent, and Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co with 5 percent each, WitsView said.
Chen forecast that shipments of TV and PC flat panels would drop 6 or 7 percent this month from last month, while shipments of TV panels would contract by 4 or 5 percent sequentially over the same period.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is