Taiwan’s two leading display makers are reducing production for consumer electronics as continuously weakening demand for notebooks and televisions have caused a supply glut.
Innolux has paused production at its 5.5-generation LCD plant in Taiwan, while AUO has shifted it notebook display production lines to a separate facility, and will repurpose its factory.
This slowdown has resulted in three consecutive quarters of net losses for AUO, and four consecutive quarters for Innolux. The former posted over A$1 billion in losses for 2022 alone.
“The market for consumer electronics has saturated, especially for those rather mature products like IT,” Innolux chairman and CEO Jim Hung told reporters.
“We are gradually idling the plant and lowering the production utilisation rate and staff there. It might take six months to one year for the transition.”
South Korean leader Samsung Display pulled out of the dwindling LCD production market last year, and rival LG Display doesn’t seem far behind, with reports that they are looking for a buyer for their LCD plant in Chinese city Guangzhou.
Global PC shipments dropped 16.5 per cent in 2022, completely wiping out the 14.8 per cent growth that the pandemic brought in 2021 – with home-schooling, lockdowns, and work shifting to home causing a boom in both demand and production for computers
