What They Say
In all the doom and gloom in LCD making, dogged survivor HannStar Display told Digitimes that the firm is optimistic of keeping its utilisation at 90% to 95% as it has diversified its product portfolios and customers away from CE markets in recent years. It kept its utilisation to an average of 80% in the first half of the year.
However, prices have been falling faster than costs and so Hannstar is continuing to suspend construction on its planned new fab. (HannStar Display to expand LCD panel capacity and AUO, HannStar Display capacity expansion delayed). Instead the firm will try to boost the resolution and sizes of panels made on its existing lines.
Hannstar is optimistic that automotive panel demand will pick up in Q4 of this year.
What We Think
It’s a while since I’ve used the word ‘fungible’ in the newsletter, outside NFTs. One of the key aspects of the LCD industry has been that most fabs can make more than one kind of panel for more than one application. If one segment becomes particularly attractive, others can move in. This flexibility has been exploited by HannStar which continues to survive and might even grow, although current conditions look as though they could delay that for a long time. If China gets its act together on OLED, that could also spell long term trouble for Hannstar. (BR)
