Taiwan’s LCD panel makers are expected to grow their revenues by 4.8 percent annually this year to about NT$1.09 trillion (US$36 billion) as rising demand from developing countries offsets slowing purchases of flat-screen television sets in Europe and the US, market researcher Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA) said yesterday.
Local LCD panel manufacturers suffered an 8.77 percent annual decline in revenues last year to NT$1.04 trillion, as the European debt crisis and a weak US economy froze private consumption, compared with NT$1.14 trillion in 2010, according to the Taipei-based PIDA.
“The visibility is very short. We do not see any signs for a reverse to prolonged weakness as of the second quarter,” PIDA’s flat-panel industry analyst Delux Chen (陳逸民) said.
“Now, we can only count on TV demand from emerging markets, such as populous Brazil and Indonesia, as well as Latin American countries. Most families in those regions are expected to replace their traditional CRT [cathode ray tube] TVs with LCD TVs,” Chen said.
Worldwide shipments of LCD TVs are expected to grow 9 percent to 225 million units this year from 206 million last year, according to Austin, Texas-based market researcher DisplaySearch’s latest projection released yesterday.
Emerging regions, which include China, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa, would grow 11 percent annually over the next four years, while developed regions would decline 1 percent each year, DisplaySearch said.
The association said new OLED technology could be the driver for a new wave of growth for the LCD industry. However, Taiwanese companies still lagged behind their South Korean competitors in developing the advanced technology, PIDA said, adding that South Korean firms owned about a 90 percent share of the US$10 billion market last year.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) has postponed mass production on a 4.5G OLED production line in Singapore to the second half of this year from last year.
LG Electronics Co announced on Tuesday that it plans to showcase its first 55 inch TVs with OLED displays from LG Display Co during the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which is scheduled to run from Tuesday through Friday next week in Las Vegas.
The first OLED TVs are expected to launch in the second half of this year with a price tag of at least US$4,000 each, according to DisplaySearch.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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