LCD panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that it has moved some production back to Taiwan to help US customers circumvent US tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Miaoli-based company said that it has built a new television assembly line in Tainan that would enhance its manufacturing ability and improve flexibility for customers outside of China.
The new production line can churn out 60,000 TVs a month, Innolux said, adding that it would expand capacity to meet customer demand.
Photo: CNA
“As Innolux looks to expand its TV assembly business and make it a new revenue driver, the company faces challenges as trade barriers increase,” former Innolux chairman Wang Jyh-chao (王志超) told a media briefing.
Wang was yesterday elected as a board director.
“Innolux has to build a second TV manufacturing base outside of China to cope with the current trade environment,” Wang said.
However, China remains a major manufacturing base for the company, given its massive domestic market and relatively lower manufacturing costs, he said.
Innolux would continue assembling TV sets for its Chinese clients at Foshan, Guangdong Province, and assembling LCD modules in Ningbo, Nanjing and Shanghai.
The company makes LCD panels at 14 plants in Taiwan.
Innolux relaunched its TV assembling business two years ago, aiming to create a new revenue source and help digest its panel output.
The company said it expects to see TV shipments increase to as much as 6 million units this year, compared with 1.8 million units last year.
Wang said he did not expect the US-China trade dispute to seriously damage end-market demand for mobile phones, PCs or TVs.
“I do not expect the effect to be bigger than the global financial crisis in 2008,” he said.
Innolux expects a significant reduction in handset display orders from Huawei Technologies Co (華為) as US’ sanctions have reduced Huawei’s mobile phone sales overseas, Innolux vice president Jeffrey Yang (楊弘文) said.
However, strong demand for smartphones, tablets and notebook computers from other clients could fill the vacuum left by Huawei, Yang said.
“We started feeling pressure to satisfy customers’ demands from May,” he said.
At yesterday’s meeting, shareholders approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.06 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 27.27 percent. The company saw earnings per share dipped to NT$0.22 last year.
Some shareholders were not satisfied with the cash dividend, or that the company had spent NT$34 billion (US$1.09 billion) on a new plant in Kaohsiung.
Others demanded that Innolux launch a share buyback program to safeguard their interests, as the company’s stock price had recently hovered at about NT$7, much lower than its net value of NT$25.46.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
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,
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,
RSS