The nation’s major LCD television makers are expected to more than double their shipments this year, as Japanese TV vendors like Sony Corp are forced to outsource more orders in the face of competition from South Korean rivals, a Taipei-based research firm said yesterday.
Taiwanese LCD TV makers are expected to ship 46 million units of flat-panel TVs this year, a spike from last year’s 20.5 million units, Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and its flat-panel subsidiary, Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), are expected to grow the fastest by nearly 10-fold to a combined 8.5 million units this year from 800,000 units last year, Topology said.
“Hon Hai will benefit from increased orders from Sony after the Taiwanese company starts operating two factories purchased from the Japanese electronics giant later this year,” Topology analyst Maxwell Chang (張乘維) said.
Taking a different tack from their South Korean rivals, Sony and Toshiba Corp are farming out more manufacturing of low-end models to Taiwanese makers to save on costs and give themselves more leeway in cutting prices, Chang said.
Local laptop computer makers Wistron Corp (緯創) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), which diversified to the better-margin LCD TV business, would also be beneficiaries from the rising outsourcing trend from Toshiba.
Wistron and Compal would expand their LCD TV shipments by 120 percent and 82 percent year-on-year to 5.5 million units and 6 million respectively this year, Chang forecast.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, is expected to increase LCD TV shipments fourfold this year to 2.5 million units, from 500,000 units last year, bolstered by demand from Chinese TV makers, Chang said.
The panel maker is aggressively expanding its LCD TV manufacturing business via its subsidiary, BriView Technology Corp (景智科技), and its TV assembly joint ventures amid intensifying competition from Chimei Innolux.
AU Optronics teamed up with Chinese TV maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co (四川長虹) and Hong-Kong-listed TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷) to form TV assembly ventures, BVCH Optronics (Sichuan) Corp (長智光電) and BriVictory Display Technology (Labuan) Co (冠智顯示器科技) in China and in Europe.
TPV, found by Jason Hsuan (宣建生) of Taiwan, ranked No. 1 among local LCD TV makers and is expected to ship 18 million units this year, up 90 percent from 9.5 million units last year, Topology said.
Separately, Chang expected global LCD TV shipments to grow 10 percent this quarter to 41.76 million units, from 38.02 million units, as TV makers roll out more models — primarily LED TVs and 3D TVs.
For the full year, global shipments of LCD TVs could rise nearly 20 percent to between 173 million units and 175 million, compared with 145.7 million units last year, Chang forecast.
LED TVs are expected to make up 20 percent of the amount, he said.
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