LCD panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday reported an eight-quarter losing streak due to reduced working days from the Lunar New Year holidays and slack seasonality last quarter.
Losses widened to NT$4.1 billion (US$126 million) from NT$3.24 billion in the fourth quarter last year. Compared with the same period last year, losses have narrowed significantly from NT$7.77 billion.
Innolux’s average selling price dropped for the third consecutive quarter to US$263 per unit last quarter, sliding about 2.23 percent from US$269 in the fourth quarter last year.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
Innolux said the prices of TV panels climbed last quarter, benefiting from restocking demand as major sports games, including the Paris Olympics and UEFA Euro, are set to take place in the second half of this year.
Gross margin improved to 4.2 percent last quarter from 3.4 percent in the third quarter and minus- 7 percent in the first quarter of last year. Revenue shrank 5 percent quarter-on-quarter, but rose 11 percent year-on-year, to NT$50.49 billion in the first quarter.
“With the world’s three major sports events approaching, [TV vendors’] new product launches and China’s 618 promotion activities should stimulate panel demand during the second quarter,” it said yesterday, adding that factory utilization and production efficiency would be enhanced to match market changes and customer demand.
Large-sized panels, mostly used in TVs and computers, are expected to grow about 13 or 14 percent this quarter, while the average selling prices for those panels would climb about 5 percent sequentially this quarter, it said.
However, shipments of its small and medium-sized panels used in smartphones and cars are expected to drop about 7 or 8 percent on a quarterly basis, it added.
Innolux’s board of directors has approved a capital spending budget of NT$21 billion for this year, slightly lower than last year’s NT$22.5 billion.
It is accelerating its transformation efforts to expand into advanced chip packaging, auto displays and other new businesses beyond flat panels, Innolux said, adding that non-display products made up 28 percent of the company’s total revenue last year.
Innolux’s board of directors also approved a NT$10.89 billion capital reduction by canceling 1.089 billion shares, a 12 percent reduction of its total capital shares, it said, adding that the company would return NT$1.2 per share to shareholders.
After the latest adjustment, Innolux would have 7.99 billion in capital shares.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS