There is a good chance for Taiwanese LCD panel makers to return to the black next quarter, because recovering demand for TV panels will help end prolonged oversupply and trigger a round of price rebounds, market researcher NPD DisplaySearch forecast yesterday.
Supply has also decreased as LCD panel makers shift production to high-resolution OLED screens for smartphones and TVs, which has limited output of TV panels because of a relatively lower yield rate, NPD DisplaySearch vice president David Hsieh (謝勤益) told reporters.
“We are optimistic about the second and the third quarters ... We are seeing supply of TV panels becoming tight recently,” Hsieh said. “A lot of TV brands started placing orders to build inventory for the second half [shopping season] ahead of schedule, before panel prices go even higher.”
Some companies have already started negotiating with panel -suppliers for a deal in preparation for “Black Friday” sales, rather than booking in June or July, he said.
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving in the US, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
On top of that, TV sales in China during the Labor Day holidays beginning on May 1 are expected to grow at a resilient 10 percent annual rate this year, Hsieh forecast.
Because the oversupply problem is improving, panel prices are expected to rise at a 2 percent or 3 percent monthly pace from this month through the third quarter, during which demand is expected to exceed supply more severely than this current quarter, he said.
The price increase would bring local panel companies’ net profit margin back into positive territory, or less than 5 percent, for the first time in eight quarters, he added.
DisplaySearch said supply of certain screens, including mainstream 32-inch panels, 40-inch, 42-inch and 46-inch panels, had become tight. Supply constraint was even marked for newly developed 39-inch TV screens, because many TV brands are following Haier Group (海爾) in launching 39-inch TV sets after Haier’s TV sets eroded sales of 37-inch TVs in North America, the researcher added.
Separately, Hsieh said Apple Inc would likely use new touch panels for its new iPhone, which could be unveiled in the fall, to reduce the thickness and weight of the new smartphone.
The adoption of in-cell touch panels could, to some extent, erode the businesses of Apple’s local touch-panel suppliers, including TPK Holding Co Ltd (宸鴻) and Wintek Corp (勝華), while boosting Japanese panel suppliers, such as Sony Corp, Sharp Corp and Toshiba Corp, Hsieh said.
Japanese companies led -rivals in Taiwan and South Korea in developing new touch panels by fabricating touch sensors with thin-film-transistor arrays, rather than adding sensors to the top of an LCD glass substrate, he said.
TPK and Wintek currently supply Apple with thicker touch panels made with the conventional on-cell technology for iPhones and iPads.
Meanwhile, Chinese LCD panel makers are expected to seize a 20 percent share of the global LCD panel market in 2014, up from this year’s 10 percent, while Taiwanese companies would see their share fall to 28 percent from 32 percent this year, the researcher’s tallies showed.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS