AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world's third-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays for computers and televisions, said global sales and prices for LCDs in the first quarter may fall from the previous three months as the year-end Christmas shopping season ends.
The first quarter will be a "mild off-peak season," said Hsiao Ya-wen (蕭雅文), a corporate communications executive at the company, with demand possibly dropping less than 10 percent from the fourth quarter and prices declining. The company maintains its guidance for the fourth quarter issued in October, Hsiao said.
AU Optronics said on Oct. 25 it expects fourth-quarter shipments of large-sized panels to rise by a "mid-teen percentage point" from the third quarter. Shipments for small and medium-sized panels are forecast to fall by a "low-teen percentage point" in the fourth quarter from the third, the company said. Large panels are used in computers and televisions, while smaller ones are used in consumer electronics including mobile phones and digital cameras.
Global sales of LCD panels will rise next year from this, as demand for their applications increase, Hsiao said.
The world's unit sales of computer monitors may rise between 20 percent and 25 percent next year from this year, while those of notebooks may climb more than 25 percent, compared with an increase of between 80 percent and 100 percent for LCD televisions, she said.
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
RSS