Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation’s No. 3 LCD panel maker, yesterday said quarterly losses widened to NT$5.16 billion (US$168 million) after shrinking demand caused prices to plunge lower than the cost price.
It was the ninth consecutive quarterly loss for Chunghwa Picture, bigger than the NT$4.76 billion loss in the second quarter and the NT$4.83 billion loss in the third quarter of last year, the company’s financial statement showed.
Gross margin dipped to minus 14.7 percent last quarter, from 5.1 percent in the second quarter and minus 9.5 percent a year ago.
“Shrinking demand has caused inventory pileup at our customers and has driven prices down to a steeper decline than during the financial crisis in 2008,” company president Lin Sheng-chang (林盛昌) told an investor teleconference.
Lin said panel prices tumbled by between 15 percent and 20 percent last quarter compared with the second quarter.
Looking forward, Lin said the company saw signs indicating a price rebound as customers have reduced inventories close to normal levels.
“The worst should be over,” Lin said.
Shipments of PC panels are expected to rise by 2 percent to 5.8 million units this quarter, from 5.72 million units in the third quarter, helped by recovering demand for replacement PCs from corporations and seasonal demand in China, the company said.
Chunghwa Pictures yesterday reduced its projected capital spending this year to NT$4 billion from the NT$5.7 billion originally budgeted.
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