Sharp Corp chief executive officer Katsuhiko Machida said prices of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels may stabilize in March as manufacturers stop spending in response to the global financial crisis, depleting inventories.
“The price will hit the bottom when inventories are gone, and we estimate that will happen by the end of this March,” said Machida, whose company is Japan’s largest maker of LCD televisions.
Makers of LCD panels are struggling with falling prices amid the global recession. Sharp said last month it would close LCD panel production lines at two plants in western Japan to maintain profitability.
“At their worst last year, LCD panel inventories rose to 14 million,” Machida told reporters on Tuesday in Osaka, where the company is based. “Since most LCD makers started postponing new investments last fall, supplies are decreasing rapidly.”
Demand for LCD televisions remains strong and sales are up about 20 percent compared with a year earlier, he said.
The effects of the strengthening of the yen, which rose 23 percent against the US dollar last year, may be offset by a drop in prices for steel, copper, aluminum and other materials used to make panels, Machida said.
“That drop has been even more drastic,” he said. “We can take advantage of that to improve earnings next business year.”
Sharp, which makes Aquos-brand televisions, in October cut its net income forecast 43 percent to ¥60 billion (US$669 million) for the year ending March 31.
Panasonic Corp, also based in Osaka and the world’s biggest consumer electronics maker, has since slashed its full-year profit forecast 90 percent to ¥30 billion.
Meanwhile, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and LG Display Corp had their ratings increased at HSBC Holdings Inc.
LG Display, the world’s second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, and AUO, Taiwan’s largest LCD maker, were raised to “overweight” from “neutral,” analyst Frank Su (蘇榖祥) wrote in a report yesterday. Chi Mei was increased to “neutral” from “underweight.”
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
Japan is heavily investing in a new kind of ultra-thin, flexible solar panel that it hopes will help it meet renewable energy goals while challenging China’s dominance of the sector. Pliable perovskite panels are perfect for mountainous Japan, with its shortage of flat plots for traditional solar farms. A key component of the panels is iodine, something Japan produces more of than any country but Chile. The push faces some obstacles: Perovskite panels contain toxic lead, and, for now, produce less power and have shorter lifespans than their silicon counterparts. Still, with a goal of net zero by 2050 and a desire to