Global shipments of LCD TV panels are expected to shrink 10 percent sequentially this month from 22.09 million units last month, snapping eight consecutive months of strong demand, on seasonal weak demand, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday in a report.
That would bring global shipments of PC and TV panels down 6.6 percent this month from 67.97 million units in the prior month, when demand beat seasonal patterns, TrendForce said.
“A rebound may occur in March at the earliest after some [TV] brands launch new models,” TrendForce analyst Winnie Chen (陳若榆) said in the report.
GLOBAL CLIENTS
Avoiding the downtrend hobbling the wider industry, Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s biggest LCD panelmaker, might see strong growth in its TV panel shipments extend into the next few months — to May at least — after clinching new orders from the Mexican government, the Taipei-based research house said.
That has helped Innolux’s shipments of 23.6-inch TV panels grow by a double-digit percentage to 1.8 million units, Trend Force said.
“That means Innolux may have to continue fully utilizing its 8.5-generation [8G] factory,” Chen said.
Innolux, which operates an 8.5G plant in central Taiwan, said early this month that it planned to add a new production line to meet demand for its TV panels.
INNOLUX SPENDING
To boost its capacity, the panelmaker budgeted NT$3.5 billion (US$111.32 million) for capital spending this year, up from last year’s NT$2.53 billion.
Last month, Innolux and South Korean panelmaker LG Display Co were the only two panel manufacturers that experienced sequential growth in TV panel shipments, up 1.4 percent and 7.7 percent respectively, TrendForce reported.
LG Display’s growth was supported primarily by robust demand for its 32-inch, 43-inch and 50-inch TV panels, as Chinese TV brands build inventory for expected Labor Day holiday shopping in May, the researcher said.
TrendForce also said that prices for 32-inch TV panels could start to fall after sustaining a strong level last year, given that Chinese and South Korean panelmakers are boosting their production capacity for 32-inch panels significantly this year to increase profits and maximize factory utilization.
Last month, shipments of 32-inch TV panels expanded 2 percent from the previous month, the researcher said.
OVERSUPPLY?
“If they continue to increase the supply of 32-inch TV panels, it will be inevitable that the market sees a supply glut,” Chen said.
Innolux shares dropped 0.62 percent to NT$16.15 yesterday in Taipei trading, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.73 percent.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
INDUSTRY LEADER: INDUSTRY LEADER: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS