LCD and semiconductor industry is booming "strong alliance"

According to the Asian Economic Report of South Korea, global semiconductor memory and liquid crystal display (LCD) companies are mired in sluggish prices due to falling product prices and slow sales of PCs and TVs. In order to survive and play a synergistic role, these companies have started to cooperate with Korean domestic or overseas competitors.

According to industry news on the 26th, DisplaySearch, a market research organization, published a report on "Japan Sharp and Taiwan Foxconn Forming Alliances Against Korea Giants in the Large LCD Area." The Korean giants mentioned in the report refer to Samsung Electronics and LG Display, which occupy half of the world's large LCD market.

According to DisplaySearch, Sharp executives have already identified Foxconn’s partnership with Hon Hai’s Chinese subsidiary. The two parties will jointly invest in the establishment of a corporate legal person in Taiwan, mainly responsible for the production of LCDTV panels and components.

Sharp and Foxconn will jointly produce glass substrates, color filters, etc. Sharp will provide technical support to Chi Mei Optoelectronics, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics will supply 20-40 inches of TV panels to Sharp. Sharp will mainly focus on the production of 60-inch display on the 10th generation production line, and 8th-generation small and medium-sized displays.

In the first quarter of this year, LG Display’s market share was 25.9%, Samsung Electronics was 25.5%, Taiwan AUO was 16.5%, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics and Sharp were 15.5% and 7.8% respectively. The combined market share of Chi Mei and Sharp, ranked fourth and fifth, can reach 23.3%, closely following South Korean companies.

LG Display’s president, Right Yingshou, stated: “CMO and Sharp should be aware that it is difficult to go it alone and it is expected that the acquisition and merger of the industry will be more active in the coming period.”

On the other hand, three companies, such as Toshiba, Sony, and Hitachi, have also decided to build cooperative companies to compete with Korean companies in small and medium-sized displays such as smart phones. It is reported that the three companies will receive 200 billion yen in funds from private funds and set up additional production lines.

In the first quarter, Samsung’s mobile monitor company’s market share was 14.7% in this area, Sharp was 12.9%, Chi Mei Optronics was 9.9%, Toshiba’s was 7.2%, LG Display was 5.8%, Sony’s was 5.7%, and Hitachi was 5.6. %, AUO is 5.5%. Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi have a combined market share of 18.5% and are absolutely competitive.

In addition, Samsung Electronics and Sony have jointly established S-LCD Corporation and established the Asan factory in Chungcheongnam-do. In Suzhou, China, Samsung and Chinese famous company TCL have also collaborated to build an SSL factory. SSL is held by Samsung Electronics, Suzhou Industrial Park, and TCL with 60%, 30%, and 10% respectively. It invests 3 billion US dollars to build 7.5 generations of factories. From 2013, it can produce 100,000 LCD panels every month.

Hynix Semiconductor and Toshiba also signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop the next-generation memory STT-MRAM. Toshiba has strong competitiveness in MRAM technology and development of new products, while Hynix has semiconductor storage technology and cost competitiveness. The cooperation between the two companies will inevitably produce a huge synergy.