China's Aoc Becomes World's No.1 LCD Monitor Producer
 

FUZHOU, Dec 15 Asia Pulse - AOC Electronics has taken the place of Samsung Electronics (KSE:005930) to become the world's No.1 LCD monitor producer this year, though its output of traditional monitors and total output of monitors still lags behind those of Samsung Electronics.

Now the total monitor output of AOC Electronics is only some one million sets less than that of Samsung, and the gap is narrowing, according to a company source.

AOC Electronics will invest another US$50 million next year to build a research and development building and a new factory in Fuqing, a city neighboring Fuzhou, capital city of east China Fujian Province. Then AOC is expected to surpass Samsung to be the world's largest monitor producer in the coming two years.

It is predicted that AOC will generate some US$3.5 billion of output value this year, 60 per cent more than last year's US$2.1 billion. Currently, AOC's output of traditional monitors has made up one-fifth of the world's total.

It is disclosed that AOC Electronics plans to move its R&D center from Taiwan to Fuqing and it will raise its gross output value to US$6 billion next year.

The LCD monitor industry has entered an era of thin profit margins, as the price on the international market plunged by half in the second half of this year, from a peak of US$320 in the first half. Industry insiders have pointed out that if the price continues to dive, a big batch of small and medium-sized LCD monitors will face closure in 2005.

http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/fe...950-0002-.html