Taiwan’s flat-panel display exports declined three years in a row to US$15.89 billion last year after hitting a record high of US$17.92 billion in 2000, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The decline has been due to stagnant growth in orders for flat panels used in notebook computers and LCD TVs in recent years as consumers continue to spend their money on mobile devices, the ministry said in a statement.
Outbound panel shipments also dropped in the wake of an increasingly competitive global environment, especially growing competition from makers in South Korea and China, the ministry added.
Based on the latest statistics compiled by the ministry and published on its Web site, China remained Taiwan’s biggest export market for flat panels, accounting for 88.5 percent of total panel exports last year.
South Korea was the second-largest export destination for Taiwanese panels, but that market consumed just 2.1 percent of the total, the ministry’s tallies showed.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese flat-panel makers, including Innolux Corp (群創光電) and AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), saw their market share in China continue to fall to 27.4 percent last year from 30.6 percent in 2009, in view of stronger competition from South Korean and Chinese rivals, the ministry said.
South Korean companies, led by Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co, maintained their leadership in the China market last year with a share of 30.7 percent, although that was less than the 32.8 percent share they enjoyed in 2009 because of the emergence of Chinese makers, the tallies showed.
The ministry said China's strategy of supply chain localization had extended pressure on both Taiwanese and South Korean flat-panel makers, as Chinese makers, like BOE Technology Group Co (京東方) and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (華星光電), saw their market share increase from 23.8 percent in 2009 to 27.4 percent last year.
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