The price for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels used in computers and televisions may decline in the second half of this month because of excessive inventories, but the fall may slow as some panel manufacturers start cutting production, market researcher DisplaySearch said yesterday.
The price for a mainstream 19-inch LCD panel for a computer monitor is expected to drop by another US$8, or around 7 percent, to US$107 per unit in the second half of this month from two weeks ago, a bi-monthly report released by the Austin, Texas-based researcher said.
“”Panel price pressure remains very heavy. Brands and system integrators are emphasizing inventory adjustments rather than boosting sales in the third quarter as planned,” DisplaySearch said in the report.
Overall however, panel selling prices will still remain above the cost of making them, the researcher said.
“We expect the downtrend to extend into August, but the decline may be less severe as some panel makers have cut production or are seriously considering reducing output [to cope with drastic changes in the market],” said David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president of DisplaySearch who is based in Taipei.
TV panel prices have dropped at a slower pace, the DisplaySearch report said. The price of a 32-inch TV panel is expected to fall approximately 7.4 percent month-on-month to US$285 per unit this month, DisplaySearch said.
TV vendors tend to have a more conservative attitude on inventories, as they have remained an issue in Europe and China, DisplaySearch said.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has cut its target price by 20 percent for the nation’s two largest LCD panel suppliers, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), to NT$65 and NT$48 for the next 12 months respectively, a report issued on Tuesday said.
Morgan Stanley said its price adjustment was in accordance with a bearish outlook on the industry. But the US brokerage kept its “overweight” rating on the stocks unchanged, citing an attractive valuation, as the stocks price to book value ratios have hit a five-year low.
"We expect the downturn to continue through the second quarter of 2009," executive director of Morgan Stanley's Taipei branch Frank Wang (王安亞) said in the report.
Shares of AU Optronics plunged 6.45 percent to NT$38.45 yesterday, under-performing the TAIEX, which dropped 2.28 percent. Chi Mei Optoelectronics closed down almost at the 7 percent daily limit at NT$26.5.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS