The stock price of the nation’s top LCD panel maker, Innolux Corp (群創), jumped 1.33 percent yesterday after China pledged to buy US$4.5 billion worth of TV panels from Taiwanese manufacturers this year.
Innolux is the biggest TV panel supplier to China’s major TV brands.
China Video Industry Association deputy director Bai Weimin (白為民) on Thursday said Chinese buyers are expected to place orders for between 27 million and 28 million flat panels this year, up from 23 million TV panels last year.
Chinese TV makers are expected to buy mostly 40-inch and 43-inch TV panels and ultra-high-definition 4K TV panels, market watcher WitsView, the LCD research arm of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said.
“Given that most of China’s panel capacity is in 8.5-generation [8.5G] production lines, it is necessary for Chinese firms to place orders in Taiwan for various sizes of TV panels to meet domestic demand,” WitsView analyst Eric Chiou (邱宇彬) said by telephone, adding that Taiwanese manufacturers’ diversified production lines are capable of providing multiple TV panel sizes.
Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 資策會產業情報研究所) analyst Brian Chen (陳彥合) shared a similar view with Chiou, saying that, although Chinese manufacturers have been increasing their production capacity, they are still not capable of producing 58-inch or 60-inch panels like Innolux due to a lack of 7.5-generation production lines.
“One of Taiwanese panel makers’ advantages is that they have three different generation production lines, which can supply a wide range of TV panel sizes,” Chen told the Taipei Times.
Commenting on China’s planned orders with Taiwan this year, Chiou said purchases might include growing orders for 4K TV panels.
Chiou forecasts the global 4K TV penetration rate to reach 15.6 percent this year, with China’s penetration rate to outpace global demand.
“As of May 1, China’s 4K TV penetration reached 30 percent, and the figure could continue to increase this year,” Chiou said, noting that China’s strong demand for 4K panels could benefit Taiwanese manufacturers, as the Chinese 4K product yield rate is still insufficient.
Chiou commented on China’s increasing production capacity, saying that he expects China’s two new 8.5G production lines to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest, affecting supply and demand.
The stock price of AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) dropped 0.59 percent to NT$16.85 on the local local bourse yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which lost 0.12 percent.
AUO’s TV panel demand remains stable, with healthy order visibility through June, Macquarie Research said in a note on May 22.
Macquarie said it foresees AUO’s clients increasing orders for 4K and 2K-resolution panels at larger sizes such as 55 inches and 65 inches in the second half of this year.
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