Taipei, March 11, 2010 (CENS)--AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), the largest thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panel manufacturer in Taiwan, recently announced it had consolidate revenue of US$1.02 billion in February, down 14.5% month-on-month (MoM) and up 112.4% year-on-year (YoY).

The panel supplier attributed the revenue drop to fewer workdays in February due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Some institutional investors said, however, that AUO`s February results were better than original expectations. AUO shipped 8.01 million large-sized (over-10-inch) TFT-LCD panels in February, down 15.3% MoM.

Institutional investors pointed out that the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in southern Taiwan is expected to more or less affect local panel makers` shipments in March and April, while might maintain the panel prices at a relative stable level.

HannStar Display Corp. registered revenue of NT$4.4 billion (US$138 million) last month, down 11.9% MoM and up 170.1% YoY. The company delivered 689,000 large-sized panels, a 27.1% MoM decrease.

According to DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in display market research and consulting, the stable market demand for LCD monitors, as well as the decreased panel production volume resulted from the earthquake in Taiwan are expected to affect the panel prices.

Especially in the notebook PC panel sector, DisplaySearch said, the overall market atmosphere seems that if the earthquake is bigger than originally expected, the panel prices would continue to climb.
(by Quincy Liang)