A shortage of driver ICs for large displays is expected to persist through the end of this year due to stay-at-home demand for computers and information technology (IT) devices, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
Demand for display driver ICs (DDI) for large displays is to grow 7.4 percent year-on-year this year, outpacing growth in supply of 2.5 percent as chipmakers allocated some 8-inch wafer capacity for higher-margin chips, TrendForce said in a report.
Chinese firms Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (晶合集成) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際) are boosting DDI capacity, but the scant increase is unlikely to alleviate supply constraints until the end of this year, it said.
“Benefiting from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced stay-at-home economy, demand for IT products continues to increase in 2021. That leads to rising demand for DDI,” TrendForce said.
The supply-demand imbalance is to increase 8-inch foundry prices further next quarter, prompting chip suppliers to again adjust prices for DDIs for large displays, the report said.
Shortages of timing controllers (TCON), another key component in display production, is also posing a challenge to flat-panel shipments, it said.
Scarcity of high-end TCONs is particularly severe due to capacity tightness at foundry service providers and chip testers, it said.
High-end TCONs are usually made on 12-inch fabs and require more testing time than regular TCONs, it added.
Overall, there is a slim chance that there will be sufficient supply of DDI for large displays over the next 12 months as long as 8-inch fabs remain fully loaded, TrendForce said.
Supply of large-display DDI and high-end TCON is crucial to the display industry’s overall supply-demand dynamics next year, it said.
In spite of key component shortages, prices of flat panels have started to show signs of weakening, as prolonged price hikes wiped out profits for TV makers, and demand for mainstream 32-inch and 43-inch TV panels also showed some weakness, TrendForce display research division vice president Eric Chiou (邱宇彬) said.
Price increases would likely slow down for most displays, while prices of some would remain flat, Chiu said.
In the fourth quarter, display makers face potential downward price corrections, as sales of TVs and monitors are likely to fall short of regular seasonal expansion after economic reopenings in the US and Europe, he said.
Shares of local flat-panel makers Innolux Corp (群創) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) yesterday fell 7.06 percent and 6.31 percent respectively, compared with the TAIEX’s 0.37 percent decline.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained