Flatpanel maker AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) yesterday posted revenue of NT$70.05 billion (US$2.27 billion) for last quarter, a 13.6 percent decrease from NT$81.04 billion in the same period last year as shipments fell on slumping demand.
Shipments of panels used in PCs and TVs fell 3.7 percent year-on-year to 28.67 million units, while those of small and medium-sized panels for smartphones tumbled 16.4 percent to 35.6 million units, AUO said in a statement.
On a quarterly basis, PC and TV panel shipments grew 5.5 percent, surpassing AUO’s expectation of no growth three months ago, while shipments of small and medium-sized panels increased 7.8 percent, slightly higher than its projection of 5 percent growth.
In the first nine months, revenue dipped 10.29 percent year-on-year to NT$206.82 billion from NT$230.54 billion, AUO said.
AUO chairman Paul Peng (彭双浪) in July warned about industry headwinds due to severe oversupply and sagging sales of TVs, PCs, smartphones and vehicles amid lingering trade tensions, while clients’ inventory buildup demand ahead of the end-of-year holiday season was not strong.
TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), a Taipei-based market researcher, said in a report on Monday that major flat panel makers worldwide have slashed their factory utilization rates this quarter to cope with widening losses on TV panels.
AUO last month lowered the equipment loading rate at its G8.5 fab to 50 percent and might retain it at that level this quarter due to falling demand for 55-inch TV panels, TrendForce said.
The company also cut the utilization rate at one of its G6 fabs by 20 percent to reduce the production of 65-inch TV panels, the report said.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co have also cut equipment loading rates by 30 to 50 percent at some of their G7 and G8.5 fabs as demand for TV panels plunges, the report said.
Taiwan’s Innolux Corp (群創) was the exception, as the company did not substantially reduce its production, the report added.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained