The Taiwanese LCD production is thriving now and the demand for gases is active. In Taiwan, two major LCD manufacturers of Innolux (INX) and AU Optronics (AUO) are dominating the market after the repeated reorganization.
According to the latest information, INX’s sales in September amounted to NTD26.354 billion up 7.8% from the previous month which is an increase by 21.4% compared with the same month of last year, and AUO sold NTD26.078 billion up 7.5% from the previous month which is an increase by 9.2% compared with the same month of last year.
In April Samsung Display already announced to stop producing large-sized LCDs by the end of 2020 to convert to the organic EL of the next generation technology. So, the LG display has been withdrawn from the large-sized LCD production and the Korean products is disappearing.
It was once supposed, therefore, that there would be a shifting move from Samsung to Taiwanese manufacturers. In fact, while China shifted to a large-scaled glass substrate of G10.5, only two Taiwanese manufacturers of INX and AUO which have the production line of the G7.5 panel like in Korea
On the other hand, before the coronavirus infection there had been a strong general assumption that Chinese LCD manufacturers like BOE Technology Group would sweep the world market in 2020 and that the Taiwanese could have a hard time to survive. However, because of the stagnation of production and logistics caused by the lockdown due to the coronavirus in the urban area since February, the supply chain of the various component materials of LCD turned out to have discontinued



As a result, BOE’s net profit for the first quarter (January to March) substantially declined by 46%.
Although they commented that the production of LCD turned to a recovery trend by the economic stimulus policy, even BOE of the Chinese top runner in LCD is said to remain suffering a deficit management. The domestic consumption in China is sluggish and the business performance is still worsening. The production power is also said to be reducing. Sewing the gap, the Taiwanese LCD manufacturers succeeded in revising the price of their products leading to the improvement of profitability. The Taiwanese companies are so strong in the high-quality LCD like 4K or 8K that they have got increasing demand from Samsung, LG or Japan.
The high operation rate of the Taiwanese LCD manufacturers is proved by the successfully good pace of consumption of the main gases of silane, ammonia, and nitrogen trifluoride which are specialty gases for LCD-
TFT
To what extent this condition lasts has something to do closely with political issues like the forecast of the US-China trade war. Therefore, though unpredictable, the “Taiwan-China War” over LCD seems to be in a cutthroat competition.