Five Taiwanese TFT-LCD Makers See Profits in 2000
June 12, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwanese TFT-LCD manufacturers published account settlements for fiscal 2000, and five of them were in black.
Their combined sales were 4.29 million units including module assemblies, and Acer Display Technology Inc. (ADT) recorded the biggest sales.
Exhibits 1 and 2 show sales of each manufacturer. Sales of Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT) included those of its CRT and STN divisions. Its generated sales of NT$13,339 million and profits of NT$2,713 million from its TFT division. (NT$34.05 = US$1)
ADT is the second manufacturer following CPT to start TFT-LCD production in Taiwan, and it had sales of NT$14,840 million.
CPT generated sales of NT$13,339 million and Unipac Optoelectronics Corp. (UMC) had sales of NT$10,743 million. UMC was ranked third, although it sold only 640,000 large panels. This is because its sales included small panels produced by its FAB1, which accounted for about 40 percent of its total TFT sales.
Chi Mei Optoelectroncis Corp. (CMO) accelerated production in the second half and sold 850,000 units, achieving sales of NT$9,456 million. This is largely due to new customers it acquired in Japan. Although it had difficulties in improving the yield ratio, it is free from any restrictions resulting from technological partnership because it developed TFT-LCD know-how by itself.
HannStar Display Corp. sold 560,000 units with revenues of NT$7,080 million. Its production was not on schedule during the first six months because of material shortages (such as driver Ics) despite constant orders from Toshiba Corp. And it suffered from lower orders in the fourth quarter due to inventory adjustments of notebook PCs.
Quanta Display Inc. (QDT) did not record sales because it hadn't started production.
Profits of these manufacturers vary with accounting procedures, and some of them recorded returned corporate taxes by utilizing investment tax reduction. Therefore, it is appropriate to use income before tax to compare their profits. Only HannStar and Prime View International Co., Ltd. (PVI) were in the red on an income before tax basis, and other companies were in the black.
CPT recorded outstanding profits of NT$9,369 million, most of which came from its CRT division. Its profits from the TFT-LCD business are supposed to be a slightly bigger than those of ADT. CPT is the only Taiwanese TFT-LCD manufacturer that has enough cash flow for investment.
Thanks to constant shipments to Fujitsu Ltd. during the last six months, Chi Mei kept a high operating rate throughout 2000 and generated pretax profits of NT$1,189 million. Unipac is estimated to have had small profits from its TFT-LCD panel sales.
Taiwanese TFT-LCD manufacturers, however, turned to the red on a pretax basis in the large panel business in the fourth quarter of 2000. It is likely that they will see sales rise sharply soon.
Chart: Performance of Taiwan's TFT manufacturer
Unit = NT$1 million (except sales unit)
Source: Releases, DIR
Related stories:
- Taiwanese TFT-LCD Panel Makers Boost Operating Rates
- Unipac Optoelectronics Enjoys Big Profits in 2000
(Yasuo Nakane, Senior Analyst, Daiwa Institute of Research Taipei Representative Office; special to Nikkei Microdevices) |
