China's leading panel maker BOE Technology has recently estimated that its net earnings for first-half 2021 would shoot up tenfold to reach CNY12.5-12.7 billion (US$1.934-1.965 billion), and its major peers in Taiwan have also reported impressive business results for the period, mainly due to continuous supply crunch and price hikes, according to industry sources.

The panel industry is apparently at the pinnacle of its ongoing cycle, as persistently strong demand for stay-at-home applications amid the pandemic and tight supply of upstream materials and components such as glass substrates and ICs have combined to drive up panel shipments, prices and order momentum, allowing makers to rake in handsome gains, the sources said.

BOE is now the world's largest display panel maker in terms of shipment volume and market share. At the moment, one out of every four display panels for smart terminal devices are made by BOE, and in the first half of the year the company topped the global supply of display screens for five major applications: smartphones, tablets, notebooks, LCD monitors, and TVs, the sources said.

Its major Taiwanese peers AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux also posted sharp revenue increases in second-quarter and first-half 2021. AUO saw its second-quarter revenues grow 15.33% sequentially and 50.64% on year to a six-year high of NT$95.656 billion (US$3.416 billion), and January-June sales jumped 52.4% on year to NT$178.596 billion.

Innolux's revenues for the quarter gained 11.2% sequentially and 39.4% on year reaching NT$93.236 billion, with the six-month sales soaring 50.99% to NT$177.074 billion.

●Origin: DIGITIMESasia
●Link: https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20210715PD203.html