Taiwan’s flat-panel industry has emerged from the doldrums thanks to a COVID-19-related surge in demand, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Production value in the industry last year grew 0.3 percent from 2019, ending two years of declines, the ministry said in a statement.
The local flat-panel industry was affected by oversupply due to Chinese competition in 2018 and 2019, with its production value dropping 16.9 percent annually to NT$725.4 billion (US$25.47 billion at the current exchange rate) in 2019, a 14-year low, ministry data showed.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
However, the boom last year due to demand for information and communications technology (ICT) products amid work-from-home and distance-learning trends caused the flat-panel market to recover, the ministry said.
In addition, the local industry’s production value grew 11.2 percent year-on-year in the second half of last year, the largest increase for the period since 2013, it said.
Panels larger than 10 inches provided most of the growth last year, the ministry said.
They accounted for 58.3 percent of total sales and generated production value of NT$424.2 billion, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, it said.
However, small and medium-sized panels suffered amid a slowdown in the cellphone panel market and US sanctions on Chinese tech firms, with production value decreasing 12.5 percent year-on-year, it said.
China, including Hong Kong, remained the largest shipment destination for Taiwanese flat panels last year, with exports totaling NT$6.92 billion, up 5.3 percent year-on-year, the ministry said.
Exports of flat panels increased 5.3 percent from 2019, while Chinese panel exports contracted 4.7 percent, South Korea’s dropped 5.6 percent and Japan’s fell 6.2 percent, the data showed.
“It is a sign that Taiwanese manufacturers are keen to return and invest in Taiwan,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) said.
“They are laying the groundwork to manufacture for automotive, medical, e-sports and other higher-value products, which is a positive development for the Taiwanese panel industry,” Huang said.
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
RSS