Taiwan's CRT makers hurt by shift to LCDs

GVC Corp (致福), which now makes telecommunications equipment, closed its monitor business in 1999 after it began making losses.

"GVC focused on its more profitable businesses instead," said Chief Financial Officer James Ho. The company sold its PC-making unit to Lite-On Technology Corp (源興科技) last December. GVC plans to start shipping cell phones to Ericsson AB in the fourth quarter of this year.

Still, the biggest CRT monitor makers remain profitable, and the screens should survive in a smaller niche market for users who want the brighter color of a CRT screen compared with the LCD equivalent.

"Some people such as designers and artists will still use CRTs for their work," Chen said. At the same time, the surviving CRT makers will move production to China to reduce their costs.

Chunghwa Picture Tube Ltd (中華映管), which says it's one of the top three CRT makers, expects to generate four-fifths of this year's revenue from CRT sales. The company, which opened a plant in China's Fujian Province in 1995, moved part of its Taiwan production to the plant last year to cut costs and to be close to clients who moved to China.

"We're still making money with CRTs," said Vice President Tony Chien. Still, Chunghwa plans to move more of its production lines to China and increase capacity of LCD screens in Taiwan as demand for flat screens rises.