Chi Mei plans LCD TV assembly in Euro
Chi Mei Group is aiming to minimize tax payments by assembling Polyvision-branded LCD TVs in Europe with partners from the continent, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
Intel price cuts of 13-50% for dual-core CPUs
Intel will lower prices for its 65nm Pentium D 9xx-series processors by 13-50% on April 23, sources at Taiwan motherboard makers indicated, noting that the price cuts are aimed to accelerate the migration to dual-core processors.
Intel is also scheduled to launch the Pentium D 960 CPU, which will be priced at US$530, on April 30, according to the sources. The new dual-core processor will feature a 3.6GHz clock speed.
Intel expects dual-core models to reach a 23% share of the business PC market by the middle of the year and 43% in the high-end consumer segment by the end of the year, the sources said.
Asustek’s mobo shipments rise slightly, while other first-tier makers drop
Asustek Computer’s motherboard shipments rose 1.5% sequentially to 4.87 million units in January, while Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), Micro-Star International (MSI), and Gigabyte Technology all saw their mobo shipments decline due to seasonality. The top four mobo makers’ combined shipments decreased 3.46% to 9.76 million units compared to December’s 10.11 million units, the sources said, adding the weak demand is expected to continue in February, but shipments will rise in March when the season begins to pick up. ECS saw staggering revenue growth in consolidated revenue in January due to its takeover of local industrial equipment and electronics appliance maker Tatung’s desktop PC department effective January 1, the sources added.
Sales growth Wistron leads Taiwan notebook makers; Quanta and Compal up more than 30%
Taiwan’s top-four notebook manufacturers Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Inventec all enjoyed on-year revenue increases in January, with Wistron recording the highest growth of 115%. Wistron’s expanded product mix drove its January sales up 115% on year but down 6.4% sequentially on seasonality.
Thanks to improved performance and new notebook orders from Acer, Inventec achieved on-year 52.4% revenue growth last month, while seasonal effects caused a slide of 19.9% on month. Revenues for Quanta and Compal, respectively, were up 31.4% and 18.2%.
Quanta and Compal, the two largest notebook players in Taiwan, shipped a combined total of 2.21 million notebooks last month, up from about 1.66 million units in the same period of 2005. Wistron and Inventec have not revealed their notebook shipments for January, but a February 9 suggested that Wistron shipped 820,000 notebooks and Inventec 400,000 units.
Quanta shipped 1.3 million notebooks in January, rising 35% from 965,000 units last year. The company also posted shipments of 250,000 handheld devices and 75,000 servers for last month, respectively, down 18% and up 15.4% from 2005.
Compal’s notebook shipments grew 5% sequentially to 910,000 units last month, compared to 690,000 units in January 2005, according to the company.
China: Dell, HP ranked 4th, 5th in desktops
Dell and HP, respectively, were the fourth and fifth largest brands in the China market for desktop PCs in terms of shipment volume during the fourth quarter of 2005, according Analysys International. The quarterly shipment volume for desktop PCs in the China market kept increasing throughout 2005 but the corresponding shipment value continually decreased slightly due to price cuts from intense competition, with the average unit shipment value of 5,599 yuan (US$696) for last quarter dropping by 1.6% on-quarter and by 9.7% on-year. Models with retail prices accounted for more than 50% of the total shipment volume for last quarter.
LCD TV sales and screen sizes increased dramatically
LCD TV shipment volumes of both large- and small-screen size grew over 156% on-year in 2005, according to Quixel Research. In addition, 32-inch LCD TVs, as well as the 15-inch and 20-inch segments were top selling in 2005.
Compared with 2004’s holiday season, 32-inch LCD TV prices fell 39% in the fourth quarter of 2005, allowing consumers to purchase several brands for around US$1,200, commented Quixel.
The total market value for LCD TVs topped US$5 billion in 2005, which was a 126 % increase over 2004’s results of US$2.2 billion, said Quixel, adding that sales rose to US$1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005, compared to US$1.3 billion in the third quarter 2005, and increased 116% from US$916 million during the fourth quarter of 2004.
A-Data aims to grow flash sales 50%
Taiwan memory module house A-Data Technology plans to roll out 30 new NAND flash products this year and expects revenues from flash to grow 50% on-year to reach NT$15 billion, according to Chairman Simon Chen. A-Data will also add IM Flash Technologies (the Intel and Micron joint venture) as a NAND flash supplier in the second half of 2006, Chen indicated. He also predicted that the price of NAND flash will bottom out in the second quarter and it could rebound as early as late in the same quarter.
While other panel makers push ahead, CPT slows capex
Although first-tier Taiwan-based LCD panel makers are aggressively increasing their capital expenditure (capex) budgets this year, second tier panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) had significantly cut its capex for 2006 and 2007, according to the company. CPT announced that its capex for 2006 and 2007 will decrease to NT$22.8 billion (US$706 million) and NT$8.8 billion (US$272 million), down from NT$59.5 billion (US$1.843 billion) in 2005.
The capex will be used for its six-generation (6G) fab and 4.5-generation (4.5G) and 6G color filter (CF) plants, according to the company. Taiwan-based first-tier panel makers including AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) have increased their capex for 2006, with the aim of expanding their panel capacity. CMO’s capex budget will reach a historical high this year at NT$100 billion (US$3.098 billion), while AUO has raised its estimated capex to more than NT$90 billion (about US$2.8 billion), according to the companies.
Earlier this year, Korea-based panel maker Samsung Electronics said the company will budget 2.37 trillion won (US$2.438 billion) in capex for the company’s LCD division this year, while LG.Philips LCD also stated it will invest 4.5 trillion won (US$4.659 billion) on capacity expansion in 2006, according to the Chinese Commercial Times.