BOE Technology Group Co (
"The larger production scale that BOE and SVA get through a merger will help cut costs," Brian Chen, an analyst with Austin, Texas-based research company DisplaySearch, said by telephone on Saturday. "That could make them a more competitive player in two years."
BOE Technology, based in Bei-jing, and Shanghai-based SVA Group said on Thursday they had agreed to merge their operations. The companies said they expect to sign an agreement before Jun. 30.
PHOTO: AP
The merger will allow BOE Technology and SVA to invest in a production line for larger, more expensive LCD panels by pooling their resources, said Wang Jinyan (
The Chinese companies, which mostly sell panels for computer monitors 17 inches diagonally in size, have suffered losses as the price of these products fell.
"BOE and SVA are being forced into this merger," Wang said on Friday by phone from Shanghai. "They don't have the resources to survive independently."
The company formed through the merger will be based in Shanghai, they said, without giving more details.
The price of a panel for a 17-inch LCD computer monitor may fall to US$122 in the current quarter, while the cost of production declines to US$121, according to DisplaySearch. The price in the last quarter was US$126 and the cost was $124, Chen said.
BOE Technology, China's biggest LCD-panel maker, said in October it expected to post a second consecutive annual net loss for last year.
The company posted a loss of 108.9 million yuan (US$13.9 million) in the third quarter of last year, compared with a loss of 379.1 million yuan a year earlier.
SVA Electron Co, the Shanghai-listed unit of SVA Group, posted a third-quarter net profit of 3.44 million yuan, less than one-seventh the profit it reported in the third quarter of 2004.
The company posted a loss of 146.9 million yuan in the third-quarter of 2005.
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's biggest LCD-panel maker, said last month it expected demand for LCD TVs to rise 53 percent next year, fueled by demand for sets measuring at least 40 inches diagonally.
AU Optronics Corp (
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)