Taiwan panel makers post weak December sales

Taiwan's large-sized panel makers posted 10-30 percent decline in consolidated sales last month, with only HannStar Display Corp. reporting higher shipments.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT) posted consolidated sales of $280.7 million, down 29 percent on-month and 14 percent y-o-y. Its large-size panel shipments also declined by 19.5 percent sequentially but went up 6.1 percent y-o-y to 1.7 million units. CPT's net sales for its TFT business last month dropped 30.4 percent and 7.4 percent y-o-y to $241 million. The company says the decline was due to the downtrend in average selling prices of all large-sized panels late last year. Year-end stock checks also affected the company's shipments for the segment.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. registered a 21.7 percent sequential drop in its December consolidated revenues to $482 million. Its shipments were about 2.99 million units, also decreasing by 13.4 percent on-month.

AU Optronics Corp. (AOU) and HannStar both have declining consolidated revenues of more then 10 percent on-month. HannStar, however, managed to raise its shipments by 1.4 percent sequentially, while AUO's shipments dropped at least 10 percent from November.