Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (
To ensure the supply of small and medium panels, Chunghwa Picture decided to establish a plant in China, most likely at its manufacturing base in Fuzhou, chief financial officer and spokesman James Wu (
The LCD panel module factory is expected to start mass production in May or June next year, he said.
SUPPLY RESTRICTIONS
Chunghwa Picture is hoping to reduce its reliance on suppliers, as it procures small and medium-sized LCD panel modules from companies who are struggling to keep up with increasing orders from Chunghwa Picture for next year, Wu said.
Orders of small and-medium-sized panels for next year have exceeded more than 30 percent of Chunghwa Picture's capacity, Wu said.
Shipments of Chunghwa Picture's small and medium-sized panels are expected to reach 60 million pieces this year. As demand for the segment of products recovers, the company hopes to ship 106 million small and medium-sized panels next year.
PRICE REBOUND
Chunghwa Picture's earnings for the third quarter jumped by 210.4 percent from a year ago on strong demand and a rebound in average selling prices. Net income was NT$5.11 billion (US$157.76 million) -- or NT$0.6 per share -- compared with a deficit of NT$4.63 billion a year earlier.
Sales were NT$46.35 billion, a 42.5 percent increase from last year and 23.3 percent up from the second quarter.
Gross margin in the third quarter improved to 20 percent from 11 percent in the second quarter.
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Banking on the bright industry outlook, Chunghwa Picture plans to expand capacity with its strategic partners, chairman Lin Wei-Shan (
The company's new partners and its plans for expansion will be unveiled in the next couple of months, Lin said.
The flat-panel maker announced in September it would introduce Warburg Pincus, a US private equity fund, as its new strategic partner. Warburg Pincus agreed to invest US$250 million in Chunghwa Picture through a private placement of overseas convertible corporate bonds.
If the US private equity investor converted all the bonds into common shares, it would hold a 10.2 percent stake in Chunghwa Picture -- making it the third-largest shareholder after home appliances maker Tatung Co (大同) and subsidiary Chunghwa Electronics Investment Co (中華電子投資).
The conversion rate was set at NT$8.5 per share. Shares of Chunghwa Picture closed down 4.37 percent to NT$12.05 on Friday.
Chunghwa Picture is scheduled to hold an ad hoc shareholder meeting on Nov. 19 to pass the private placement.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the