Digitimes Research: Sharp struggling due to lagging orders in China

Japan panel maker JDI is expected to surpass Sharp in revenues during fiscal 2015 due to the company's strong presence in the China market coupled with steady orders from Apple.

According to Digitimes Research, JDI has been more successful in developing cooperation with vendors in China to supply handset panels used in high-end smartphones. Fellow maker Sharp has also been competing for orders but has seen weak results, one of the major reasons for the company incurring major losses in fiscal 2014.

JDI's profit margin, however, is not expected to surpass that of major makers in Taiwan as the company is focused on small- to medium-size panels, a market that is expected to see oversupply in 2015.

In the first quarter of 2015, Sharp's equity ratio reached 1.5%, drastically lower that the 19-24% of other vendors such as Hitachi and Panasonic, said Digitimes Research.