In December, Chi Mei Optoelectronics shipped the largest number (770,000) of LCD panels for large-screen television sets from any manufacturer, according to the Taiwan Economic News, which based its story on statistics compiled by DisplaySearch. That’s more than Samsung Electronics, more than LG.Philips LCD (LPL), more than AU Optoelectronics (Taiwan’s largest LCD maker). CMO’s 770,000 (including 300,000 32-inch panels) topped Samsung’s 760,000, LPL’s 730,000, and AUO’s 550,000 (including about 250,000 panels 32 inches and larger)..

Ken Werner
Senior Analyst and Editor
of HDTV Retailer

Rankings don’t necessarily mean much in the long run. But when a new ranking represents a change in the long-established order of things, it can help us see a world trembling on the edge of a historic transition. In this case, it’s the transition from Korea being the dominant supplier of LCD panels to Taiwan becoming dominant. This is a trend that’s been under way for some time and there have been a couple of quarters in which Taiwan out-shipped Korea. But now, we have Taiwan’s Number Two manufacturer beating the Korean giants in a critically important category.

Changes like this don’t happen by accident. Apparently, CMOs customers, like Westinghouse Digital, are doing very well. In addition, CMO has had an aggressive investment strategy, and at a time when only Sharp has committed to a start date for building a Gen 8 plant.

CMO Chairman Ching-Siang Liao plans to start construction of an LCD plant “more advanced than 7.5G” at the Kaohsiung Science Park, with volume production to begin in 2007 or 2008. This is in addition to the company’s 7.5G plant, which is scheduled to begin cranking out panels on 1,950×2,250mm substrates in Q2′07.

If CMO can sell all of the panels it will be able to make, it could well be the Ichi-ban (Number 1) manufacturer of large LCD-TV panels for some time to come. (If it’s acceptable to use a Japanese expression to describe a Taiwanese company.)

Pundits have been predicting 2006 would be the year that Taiwan’s dominance in LCD production would become established. We have seen occasional months of strength in 2005, but the Taiwanese now appear to have the winds at their backs going into 2006.