Flat-panel maker Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that quarterly losses improved last quarter on the back of increased demand for panels for monitors, laptops and medical devices, as economies reopened in the US and Europe, and the COVID-19 pandemic drove remote learning and telecommuting trends.
Innolux’s net loss narrowed to NT$4.78 billion (US$161.82 million) during the April-to-June quarter, compared with a net loss of NT$5.2 billion in the first quarter, the company said in a statement.
That was the seventh consecutive quarterly loss reported by the Miaoli-based company. Innolux posted a net loss of NT$2.97 billion a year earlier.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
However, gross margin last quarter returned to positive territory at 2.8 percent, from minus-1.8 percent a quarter earlier, but was still lower than 3.7 percent a year earlier.
“The demand for panels last quarter improved as European and US markets gradually recovered from lockdowns, and the stay-at-home economy helped spur demand,” Innolux said in the statement.
Those factors helped boost revenue by 32.7 percent sequentially to NT$66.88 billion last quarter, the company said.
Innolux said that economic stimulus measures launched by countries around the world would spur demand for TV panels in the third quarter.
TV makers have also been building up inventory ahead of the year-end shopping season, which helps propel panel demand, it said.
Robust demand for laptop and monitor panels would extend into this quarter due to work-from-home and remote learning trends, the company said.
Overall shipments of TV and PC panels this quarter would rise by a high single-digit percentage from last quarter, Innolux said.
This quarter, average selling prices for those panels would climb by a mid-single-digit percentage quarter-on-quarter, while shipments of small and medium panels would grow by a single-digit percentage compared with last quarter, thanks to demand for panels used in vehicles and 5G mobile phones recovering due to new product launches, it said.
Consulting firm Omidia Group said that Innolux and its local peer AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) would swing back into the black this quarter, benefiting from a V-shaped recovery, as panel prices are expected to surge 40 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Separately yesterday, Innloux in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said that it has transferred a batch of manufacturing equipment worth NT$446.85 million to its auto display manufacturing subsidiary, CarUX Technology Inc (群豐駿科技), to restart efforts to spin it off.
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