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Taiwan panel makers fine-tuning production strategies

Jason Yang, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei 0

Taiwan's panel makers including AU Optronics (AUO), Innolux and HannStar Display are adjusting their manufacturing strategies to cope with mounting competition resulting from the build-ups of AMOLED panel capacities by rivals in Korea and China.

Stepping up their efforts to develop micro and mini LED panels to enhance their competitiveness, AUO and Innolux have also fine-tuned their production of LTPS panels.

AUO has shifted the production of its 6G LTPS fab in Kunshan, China to focus on rolling out panels for high-end notebooks supporting gaming and creative art applications, while reducing those for smartphone applications.

Innolux and its affiliated panel companies Sharp and Century Technology (Shenzhen) are making finer division of work between them to better meet market trends.

With respect to handset panels, the three panel makers under the Foxconn Group are focusing on LTPS models, and they have landed more windfall panel orders for mid-range and high-end smartphones from Huawei recently as the Chinese vendor seeks to enhance its presence in the domestic market amid fresh US trade bans.

Innolux is also benefitting most from an Amazon policy that stresses on introducing mainly 8-inch tablets, boosting shipments of small- to medium-size panels from the Taiwanese panel maker.

HannStar Display, which operates a single 5.3G line, is revving up production of medium-size panels for industrial control and automotive applications, particularly for automotive after-market in China.