Taiwan AU Optronics' profit surges almost six-fold in third quarter

TAIPEI (AFP) Oct 27, 2003
Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp. on Monday raised its 2003 pretax profit forecast to 14.10 billion Taiwan dollars (402 million US dollars) from the 10.51 billion projected in August after its net profit surged nearly six-fold in the three months to September.

AU Optronics, the world's third biggest flat panel manufacturer, also raised its sales forecast for the year to 102.80 billion dollars from 97.28 billion.

The company's net profit in the three months to September jumped 5.74 times to a record 4.99 billion dollars while sales jumped to 26.34 billion dollars from 17.12 billion.

Its net profit in the nine months to September rose 18.97 percent year-on-year to 8.09 billion dollars, while sales increased to 65.53 billion dollars from 59.54 billion.

"With overall demand for TFT-LCDs (flat panels) continuing to grow in the third quarter and average selling prices remaining stable, unit shipments for the company's large-sized panels increased 13.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to over 3.1 million in the third quarter," said Hui Hsiung, the company's Business Unit.

Shipments of small- and medium-sized panels posted a remarkable 61.3 percent sequential growth to over 7.6 million units.

"The healthy shipment growth is mainly attributed to new capacity at the company's fifth-generation plant, currently in the ramping-up process," Hui said.

AU Optronics chief financial officer Max Cheng told an investor conference the company's earnings per share forecast has been raised to 3.30 dollars from 2.46 dollars.

"Through our concerted effort on technology development, cost control, product mix and capacity allocation optimization, and customer portfolio enhancement, we have further solidified our leadership in Taiwan while significantly strengthening our global competitiveness," Au Optronics President H.B. Chen said.

Au Optronics, Taiwan's leading manufacturer of thin-film-transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD), ranks third in the world after Samsung and L.G. Philips of South Korea.

The company launched the construction of a cutting-edge TFT-LCD complex estimated to cost 80 billion dollars at Taichung Science-based Industrial Park in central Taiwan in July.

Besides the TFT-LCD facility, the complex will house a color filter plant and a module assembly fab, chairman K.Y. Lee said.

The plant is scheduled to begin mass production in the second quarter of 2005 with an initial monthly capacity of 60,000 panels.

It will make flat panels measuring 1,500 millimeters by 1,850 millimeters (60 inches by 74 inches) with the investment geared mainly towards the robust growth expected in LCD television sales, Lee said.

The new plant will be designed to cut 30-inch to 40-inch panels, while LCD televisions with screens larger than 30 inches will be the mainstream products for the future.

SPACE.WIRE