Global liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers could see their equipment utilization rate improve to nearly 80 percent in the current quarter and to more than 90 percent in the second half of the year, a market researcher said yesterday.
The rising utilization rate reflects a gradual recovery in end demand rather than a situation driven simply by inventory buildup, Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch said at an annual flat-panel conference in Taipei.
CONFIDENCE
The researcher bases its confidence on faster-than-expected growth of LCD television sales in the first two months in North America, the world’s largest TV market.
Recovering demand may also drive up panel prices by around 9 percent quarter-on-quarter for TV panels and more than 10 percent for computer panels this quarter, following 3 percent quarterly hikes in the first quarter, DisplaySearch said.
NORTH AMERICA
David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president of DisplaySearch, said on the sidelines of the conference that LCD TV sales in North America grew more than 40 percent year-on-year in both January and February.
“We are optimistic about the LCD industry outlook,” Hsieh said. “In January and February, we already saw LCD TV demand pick up in China and North America. In April, demand in Europe should join the revival.”
“We are now almost certain that the recovery is underway and will be sustainable in the second half of this year,” Hsieh said, adding that demand may jump 30 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third and fourth quarters.
In light of recovering demand, DisplaySearch is considering raising its LCD TV panel shipment forecast to 140 million units this year, up 5.58 percent from its forecast of 132.6 million units globally, Hsieh said.
CHINA DEMAND
“We are seeing demand picking up, mostly from China, and the momentum may extend into the second half,” said Daniel Lee, a market director at the Taiwan branch of LG Display Co, the world’s No. 2 LCD panel supplier.
LG Display’s utilization rate improved to more than 90 percent in the first quarter from less than 70 percent in the fourth quarter, Lee said.
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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