Samsung mulls LCD unit spin-off amid falling demand Skip to main content

Samsung mulls LCD unit spin-off amid falling demand

BBC
Samsung LCDs on display 
 Electronics manufacturers globally have seen sales and profits at their LCD businesses dip

Related Stories

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has said it is considering spinning-off its Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit in a bid to streamline its business.

The move comes as the unit saw its sales dip more than 10% last year amid slowing demand. Falling prices of LCD panels have also dented profits.

The firm said it was planning to focus on new technology such as the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.

Samsung is the world's largest TV and flat-screen maker.

"The LCD business is not good enough now and I think that Samsung is looking to focus on new business," Annabelle Hsu of IDC told the BBC.

Chinese competition
 

Start Quote

New LCD production lines established by Chinese vendors are a major reason why the industry remains in an oversupply situation”
Annabelle Hsu IDC
 
Samsung is not the only electronics firm that has been struggling to keep its LCD unit profitable. 

South Korean rival LG and Japan's Sony, the other two major players in the sector, have experienced similar problems.

Analysts said that while demand had been slow, the manufacturers had also hurt themselves by producing too many units.

"We believe that the LCD segment worldwide is in an over-supply situation," said IDC's Ms Hsu.

She explained that, since supply outstripped demand, the panel makers have had to cut costs in an attempt to attract customers and that has hurt profit margins.

At the same time, Chinese firms have also entered the industry, a move that analysts say has made global manufacturers worry that prices may fall even further given China's low-cost base.

"New LCD production lines established by Chinese vendors are a major reason why the industry remains in an over-supply situation," Ms Hsu added.
Displaying promise?
 
While growth in the LCD sector is slowing, the OLED segment is expected to boom in the coming years.

Analysts said while these displays were being mainly used in smartphones currently, they expect a much wider use across other products, including TVs, in the near future.

According to some estimates, Samsung's OLED revenues are expected to increase by almost 600% by 2014.

Samsung's subsidiary Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) enjoys a huge market share in the segment and there has been growing speculation that the firm may merge SMD with its LCD business.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do