AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, yesterday told shareholders that the LCD industry this year would remain healthy because TV replacement demand for bigger TVs would boost overall panel demand by 10 percent annually this year.
“It is a trend for consumers to opt for new TVs with bigger and higher-definition screens this year. Replacement demand is likely to occur in emerging markets and developed nations as people retire their bulky cathode-ray tube TVs,” AUO chairman and president Paul Peng (彭双浪) told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting.
In March, Peng said the first quarter would be this year’s trough and predicted that sales momentum would pick up gradually for the remainder of the year.
Earnings per share were NT$0.54 in the first quarter, down from NT$0.62 in the previous quarter, but higher than NT$0.03 a year earlier.
Yesterday, AUO shareholders approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per share based on last year’s net profit of NT$18.06 billion (US$582.54 million), or NT$1.83 per share.
Peng told shareholders that the company has no plan to merge with bigger rival Innolux Corp (群創), denying recent speculation about a merger between the nation’s top two panel makers after former AUO chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜燿) handed his post to Peng last month.
He also said the company still has some leeway to cope with a trade agreement between China and South Korea, after the two nations formally inked a free-trade agreement on Monday. Based on the Beijing-Seoul agreement, China will not halve tariffs on LCD panels imported from South Korea from 5 percent to 2.5 percent over the next eight years, he added.
However, AUO is to accelerate its pace of improving its product portfolios by boosting shares of high-margin panels, such as those used in cars and in commercial space, as well as touchpanel total solutions, which is to boost its profitability, he said.
Separately, Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) yesterday said it would invest 12 billion yuan (US$1.94 billion) on a new sixth-generation plant in China’s Fujian Province after securing support from the Chinese government and strategic partners.
To fund the plant construction, Chunghwa Picture’s board approved a plan to offer new shares to raise 8.4 billion yuan via private placement, according to a statement.
The company also plans to arrange a syndicated loan of 3.6 billion yuan, it said.
The company said the new plant would help it avoid the 5 percent import tariffs leveled by Chinese government on LCD panels.
Chunghgwa Picture last year made a loss of NT$3.98 billion.
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
AMAZING ABUNDANCE: Elon Musk has announced plans for a new facility in Texas which would manufacture chips for Tesla and SpaceX to use in robotics and AI Elon Musk said his Terafab project — a grand plan to eventually manufacture his own chips for robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and space data centers — would be built in Austin and jointly run by Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). Musk, the chief executive officer of the two companies, said he would start off with an “advanced technology fab” in Austin that would have all of the equipment necessary to make chips of any kind. The project would call for one day supporting 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power per year, the amount Musk expects the companies to
RSS