Thursday, July 31, 2008

CPT lowers 2008 LCD panel shipment goal by 6%

Rebecca Kuo, Taipei; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 30 July 2008]

Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) vice president Brian Lee told investors that the panel maker has lowered its large-size panel shipment goal by 6% for the year, in order to reflect weaker-than-expected demand in the LCD panel market, with reduction for various panel segments being in the 5-10% range.

For monitor panels, the original goal for 2008 was 19.2 million units, with 9.5 million units for the first half of the year and 9.7 million units for the second half. The revised goal is 17.9 million units for the entire year, with 9.4 million and 8.5 million units for the first and second half.

For notebook panel shipments, the original goal for 2008 was 6.8 million units, with 3 million units coming from the first half of the year and 3.8 million units from the second half, Lee said. The goal now is 6.1 million units for the whole year, 2.9 million units of which coming from the first half and 3.2 million units from the second.

But CPT raised its shipment goal for TV panels, which were originally expected to reach 1.4 million units in the first half and 1.3 million units in the second half for a total of 2.7 million units for 2008. The revised goal put 2008 shipments at 2.9 million units, 1.4 million units coming from the first half and 1.5 million units in the second half of the year, Lee said.

CPT president Chuang-Yi Chiu said 2008 shipments still look satisfactory. CPT has lowered its utilization rate by 10%, but the company expects it to be a short-term measure that will last only till the end of August when demand in the panel market rebounds, Chiu said.

Most of the major panel makers have already cut their production, with Samsung Electronics being an exception. Asked if Samsung's decision to not cut production will affect the panel industry's supply and demand, Chiu said it will have impact in one way or another.

But he commented that it is understandable why Samsung is not reducing its panel output because the Korean vendor has a strong LCD TV and monitor brand, so it has strong capabilities to digest inventories.

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