Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tube (CPT) LCD panel production line is currently operating at full capacity

It is reported that Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tube (CPT) LCD panel production line is currently operating at full capacity due to orders for full-screen mobile phone panels from the four major smartphone manufacturers in Mainland China.

Lin Sheng-chang, president of Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes, pointed out that due to the industry’s strong demand for 18:9 full-screen panels, CPT has increased the quotations of some mobile application panels in the second quarter; and is currently working with customers Negotiations to continue to increase prices in the third quarter. At present, the company's full-screen display order visibility has been extended to the third quarter, and is expected to increase the proportion of full-screen display panels in the total mobile phone panel shipments from the current 60-70% to more than 80% by the end of 2018.

Although the company also plans to start selling notch-style mobile phone panels in the third quarter, as full-screen models will continue to become the mainstream of the market, shipments of notch-style panels will be restricted. Affected by the expansion of panel size, CPT's mobile phone panel shipments are expected to reach 130-140 million in 2018, a slight decrease from the 160 million in the same period last year. Lin said that the average cell phone panel size was 4-4.5 inches in 2017, and it may expand to 5 inches in 2018.

In 2018, automotive panel shipments will increase to 14 million, compared with 12 million in the same period last year. Lin said that CPT continues to expand the proportion of automotive and industrial control application panels to two-thirds of the overall panel shipments to maintain future growth.