AU Plays Catch-Up With China Panel Plan 台湾友达在大陆LCD面板争夺战中占得先机

By newsdoug on June 28, 2011

After a wait of more than a year, Taiwan’s AU Optronics (Taipei: 2409) has finally won approval to produce state-of-the-art LCD panels in China, which it looks set to do by buying into an existing panel maker in the city of Kunshan near Shanghai, Chinese media are reporting. (English article; Chinese article) It’s been quite interesting to watch this race develop, which has seen the world’s top 4 panel makers, AU and hometown rival Chimei Innolux (Taipei: 3481), compete with the Korean pair of Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and LG Display (Seoul: 034220) to be first to build an 8.5-generation LCD plant in China. LG and Samsung have both already been approved to build their own Chinese plants, and in an interesting twist media reported in April that Samsung would take a 15 percent stake in domestic TV leader TCL’s (Shenzhen: 000001) 8.5-generation LCD plant in Shenzhen. AU’s tie-up with Kunshan Longfei — under which AU will take over management of the company — should help the Taiwanese company quickly regain any lost ground on LG Display and Samsung, which have to build up their production facilities from zero. The irony in all this is that LCD sales will probably start to slow in the next few years as more and more homes already have big-screen TVs, just as all the new Chinese production is hitting the market. That will make the race even more interesting, as whoever gets to market first will probably beat the glut, at least initially.

Bottom line: AU Optronics has gotten a slight lead on its Korean rivals in their race to build new LCD plants in China, though the sector faces a supply glut when all the new capacity comes online.

大陆媒体报导称，在沉寂了一年多之後，台湾友达<2409.TW>终於通过参股昆山龙飞光电，获得了在中国生产世界先进水平的LCD(液晶显示器)面板的许可。静观世界四大顶级面板商的竞争是一件很有意思的事。韩国三星电子<005930.KS>、LG Display<034220.KS>和台湾友达、奇美电子<3481.TW>均想率先在中国创建8.5代LCD面板生产厂。LG和三星电子早已获准在中国修建面板工厂，而中国媒体四月份则报导了一则有趣的新闻，三星将获得中国电视制造商TCL在深圳8.5代LCD面板厂15%的股份。台湾友达和龙飞光电的合作，应有助於友达迅速收复被LG和三星电子占领的失地，因後两者需从无到有创建他们的生产厂。而最讽刺的在於，当上述公司这些中国工厂的产品数年後投放市场之时，届时LCD的销量可能已呈现放缓之势，因为会有越来越多的家庭早已拥有大屏幕电视。因此这场争夺战变得更为有趣，因为谁先抢占市场，谁就有可能占领领跑优势，至少在初期是这样。

一句话：台湾友达在这场争夺最先在中国开设LCD面板厂的竞争中暂时领先于韩国竞争对手，不过当这些工厂的产品全面出货时，可能会面临着严重的供应过剩局面。