AUO presented its quarterly result and highlighted that its better result than ‘a Korean competitor’ (i.e. LG Display) was the result of its long term development of a more niche strategy, rather than chasing volume and share.
AUO increased its niche and high end product shipments to limit its exposure to the price war in TV panels. Although the company managed to avoid the worst problems in the first half of the year, the next couple of years will continue to be challenging in LCD. Gaming monitor panels and notebook panels increased, while TV panels dropped and area shipment went down by 2.3% from Q1. AUO claims to be larger in gaming monitor and notebook panels than all the other suppliers, combined. IT and monitor brands have been seeing some replacement growth and that has helped with demand. The inventory situation and for brands is quite healthy, although monitor stocks in China are a bit high after the June sales period.
Sales were particularly good in Russia and in TV, the average size of panels shipped increased by 1.5″ year on year. The company also said that in TV, more than 50% of its panels are in UltraHD and will launch a full range of 8K panels in the second half of 2018.
Automotive displays continue to develop and AUO expects to improve its share, where it is second largest at the moment. It expects to develop based on the strength of its LTPS technology.
In its investor conference, Paul Peng of AUO said that it believes it is in the lead group with microLED technology.
Analyst Comment
MicroLED might be the technology that could lift AUO onto the next wave of its development if it is really as well ahead as it believes. The sample it showed at SID was impressive, so perhaps it is. (BR)
AUO relaxed its ‘no photos’ policy for us so that we could snap this MIcroLED. Image:Meko
