AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday reported that revenue last month was little changed from August’s, while quarterly revenue slightly surpassed analysts’ forecasts.
Sales last month reached NT$35.62 billion (US$1.17 billion), up 0.3 percent from August’s NT$35.51 billion, but down 3.5 percent from NT$36.9 billion in the same month last year.
Third-quarter revenue climbed 4.75 percent sequentially to NT$106.89 billion on the back of higher prices, from NT$102.04 billion in the second quarter.
Last quarter’s revenue edged JPMorgan’s estimate of NT$106.6 billion and consensus forecasts of NT$105 billion, according to a report it released last week.
On an annual basis, sales edged down 0.18 percent from NT$107.08 billion during the third quarter last year, AU Optronics said.
Revenue turned out better than expected because of the 2.2 percent increase in PC and TV panel shipments to 29.48 million units last quarter from 28.9 million units in the previous quarter, it said. The company had forecast that shipments would be flat or decline slightly because of capacity constraints.
AU Optronics predicted in July that factory utilization would reach 95 percent last quarter and overall TV panel supply would be tight, driven by seasonal strong demand from TV vendors, which were expected to build inventory ahead of China’s national holiday shopping season this month and the Christmas shopping spree in the US and Europe.
Market researcher NPD DisplaySearch yesterday said that prices for mainstream 32-inch TV panels rose 2 percent to US$90 in the first half of this month from two weeks ago.
“Overall, the TV panel supply still cannot fulfill demand and panel makers continue to hike prices on many sizes in October,” the researcher said in a survey released yesterday.
However, NPD DisplaySearch said that panel makers would be under growing pressure to maintain profitability during the year-end promotional season, as some leading panel manufacturers cut prices to gain market share.
JPMorgan said it expects AU Optronics to report better operating margins for last quarter, rising to 7.2 percent from 3.8 percent in the second quarter and 3.2 percent a year ago. However, AU Optronics’ profit margin could shrink to 5 percent after panel prices start falling, it said.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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