Sharp Corp chief executive officer Katsuhiko Machida said prices of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels may stabilize in March as manufacturers stop spending in response to the global financial crisis, depleting inventories.
“The price will hit the bottom when inventories are gone, and we estimate that will happen by the end of this March,” said Machida, whose company is Japan’s largest maker of LCD televisions.
Makers of LCD panels are struggling with falling prices amid the global recession. Sharp said last month it would close LCD panel production lines at two plants in western Japan to maintain profitability.
“At their worst last year, LCD panel inventories rose to 14 million,” Machida told reporters on Tuesday in Osaka, where the company is based. “Since most LCD makers started postponing new investments last fall, supplies are decreasing rapidly.”
Demand for LCD televisions remains strong and sales are up about 20 percent compared with a year earlier, he said.
The effects of the strengthening of the yen, which rose 23 percent against the US dollar last year, may be offset by a drop in prices for steel, copper, aluminum and other materials used to make panels, Machida said.
“That drop has been even more drastic,” he said. “We can take advantage of that to improve earnings next business year.”
Sharp, which makes Aquos-brand televisions, in October cut its net income forecast 43 percent to ¥60 billion (US$669 million) for the year ending March 31.
Panasonic Corp, also based in Osaka and the world’s biggest consumer electronics maker, has since slashed its full-year profit forecast 90 percent to ¥30 billion.
Meanwhile, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and LG Display Corp had their ratings increased at HSBC Holdings Inc.
LG Display, the world’s second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, and AUO, Taiwan’s largest LCD maker, were raised to “overweight” from “neutral,” analyst Frank Su (蘇榖祥) wrote in a report yesterday. Chi Mei was increased to “neutral” from “underweight.”
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance