Taiwan’s LCD panel makers are facing a bumpy road in developing next-generation technology as chances are fading that the government will support the costly development, a TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) analyst said yesterday.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs last month said that it was considering injecting as much as NT$10 billion (US$318.5 million) to help firms develop flexible active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) technology and to form a “national team” to build a supply chain to collectively support the development of the technology.
However, the government has been stuck in limbo since then, with no funding plan or development blueprint on the horizon.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times.
“We do not have high hopes that the government will support the development,” TrendForce analyst Iris Hu (胡家榕) told the Taipei Times by telephone. “It is just a verbal commitment.”
In contrast to the inertia of Taiwan’s government’s, the Chinese and South Korean governments are aggressively assisting their LCD panel manufacturers foray into AMOLED technology as the investments will be several times higher than building an LCD production line, Hu said.
“For local LCD panel suppliers, which just emerged from chronic losses, the government’s funding will be critical,” Hu said. “Without the government bankrolling the project, things could become really difficult.”
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, last month highlighted the need for government support, as it would cost a company more than NT$10 billion to develop AMOLED technology.
“Not a single company from Taiwan can afford it on its own,” AUO chairman Paul Peng (彭双浪) said at the time.
The Hsinchu-based company told investors in July that it would stop wasting money on the development of large OLED panels and focus instead on producing smaller OLED panels used in wearable and virtual reality devices.
Innolux Corp (群創), in which Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has a major stake, recently said that it planned to develop flexible AMOLED technology, but it did not provide concrete details.
Analysts said it all depended on what resources Innolux could obtain after the tie-up of Hon Hai and Sharp Corp.
Sharp is developing OLED technology and is making better progress, they said.
“Taiwanese are losing ground in OLED to [South] Korean vendors,” CIMB Securities Ltd said in a report released earlier this month.
Most key equipment, critical material and production tools were fully booked by South Korean and Chinese firms for delivery over the next 18 months to 24 months, CIMB said, citing its recent surveys with OLED supply-chain firms.
Investors who expected Innolux to leverage Sharp’s IGZO technology for producing OLED mobile displays would be disappointed as the technology is suitable for producing OLED TV panels, but was unlikely to be commercialized within the next two years, CIMB said.
The brokerage said it was concerned about Taiwan’s LCD sector as the recent price uptrend is supported by seasonal demand, with the strength of price hikes appearing to diminish.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last