Handset display manufacturer HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday said it expects display shipments for vehicles and industrial devices to contribute between 15 and 20 percent of its total revenue this year following diversification efforts.
To minimize risks associated with volatility in the LCD industry, HannStar said it has been expanding its product lineup and tapping into niche segments in search of a better and secure profit margin.
HannStar, which operates a 5.3-generation plant in Tainan, said the strategy is workable and has helped it turn a profit even during market slumps.
The company last quarter reported an operational profit margin of 31 percent before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, beating Innolux Corp’s (群創) 19.5 percent and AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) 16 percent.
HannStar, which entered the car display market three years ago by supplying displays to tier-one automotive brands, rather than focusing on aftermarket automotive supply, expects significant growth in the segment over the next three years, including this year, most of which in dashboard and center display sales, Operations Center head Victor Huang (黃凱勝) said on the sidelines of the firm’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taipei.
Automotive and industrial displays will make up 15 to 20 percent of the company’s total revenue this year, a 5 to 10 percentage point rise, Huang said.
HannStar attributes the shift to lukewarm mobile demand this year, after LCD panels used in smartphones and feature phones were responsible for more than 60 percent of last year’s NT$23.74 billion (US$796.2 million) in revenue.
The company supplies LCD panels for smartphone vendors such as China’s Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) and Vivo Electronics Corp (維沃移動通信), as well as for feature phones to cope with demand from developing nations.
“The prices for small and medium-sized panels have stabilized,” company spokesman Justin Chien (簡宏毅) said. “We hope that prices will pick up in the second half this year, when demand returns ahead of the peak season.”
Washington lifting some of its sanctions against ZTE Corp (中興通訊) would help boost Hannstar’s sales to the Chinese firm, as it would no longer have to apply for permission to do so, it said.
Shareholders yesterday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per common share, making for a payout ratio of 24.88 percent based on earnings per share of NT$2.01 last year.
Shareholders also approved a proposal to issue 500 million common shares to raise funds to replenish operating capital and forge strategic partnerships.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to