Innolux: Flat panel price trend this year, no new factory investment plan

Core Tip: A major panel manufacturer, Innolux held an online legal seminar, including panel price trends and whether the company has a new factory expansion plan, which is the focus of everyone's attention.
Large panel manufacturers, Innolux held an online legal seminar, including the trend of panel prices and whether the company has a new factory expansion plan, which is the focus of everyone's attention.

Yang Zhuxiang, general manager of Innolux, said that the trend of panel prices this year is relatively flat, the market demand in different regions is very different, and the logistics time is as long as 4 months, and the peak season in the second half of the year will be brought forward to the second quarter. Optimistic about market demand this year.

Unlike AUO's announcement of the expansion of the new factory, Innolux Chairman Hong Jinyang emphasized that this year's capital expenditure will remain at the level of NT$26 billion, and there is no investment plan for the new factory. Capital expenditures are mainly used for investments in technology upgrades, automation, new ventures, and field construction. The input speed of new panel production capacity has slowed down. In the past five years, the growth rate of capital expenditure and production capacity has been 7%, but the growth rate in the next five years will be reduced to 1.5%.

In addition, the investment mentality has also changed. In the past, panel factories built new factories and expanded production capacity to grab customers. Now, when the industry invests in new production capacity, it is mentioned that it is necessary to observe market product trends and customer stability, and it is technology-oriented. The panel industry will not return to The state of capacity competition.

Hong Jinyang said that last year, panel prices fluctuated violently, and the epidemic situation was relatively moderate this year. The impact of inflation and the supply chain will continue, but panel price fluctuations will be moderate, unlike last year. In terms of volume, there will be differences in different regions and products this year. In terms of laptops and monitors, last year's laptops had a strong performance in the European and American markets. This year, due to factors such as interest rate hikes and inflation, demand may slow down. However, demand in the Asian market is relatively stable, and emerging markets are expected to grow.

As for the performance of the TV market, in 2022, the Asian market is expected to have an opportunity to grow this year due to the stimulation of large-scale sports events such as the World Cup, as well as the relatively low base period and little impact of inflation. In contrast, the European and American markets may decline.

Yang Zhuxiang pointed out that, from the perspective of main applications, the price of TV panels fell last year, and the production capacity turned to monitor panels to make better profits, which led to an increase in the supply of monitor panels and a decline in prices, while notebook panels were in the off-season.

From the perspective of TV, the land and sea transportation to Europe is smooth, the port congestion in the United States has eased, and after the shortage of goods on the shelves has been covered, suppliers have gradually recovered from pessimism and uncertainty to rationality. Mid-size panels have also turned toward balance. On the whole, it is expected that the panel market will gradually improve, and the demand for this year is cautiously optimistic.