To cope with the continued high demands for IT panels in the post-epidemic era as well as consolidate its global market share for high-end notebook panels, AUO has planned to invest as much as NT$30 billion in its Kunshan plant to further increase its monthly production capacity of LTPS notebook panels. It is expected that the production of the current 27,000 - 28,000 pieces will be increased to 47,000 pieces; an expansion of 70%.

impact analysis

Benefiting from the new norm ushered in by the epidemic and the effects of the stay-at-home economy, demand for notebooks and other personal computers has been steadily increasing. According to a report released by the market research agency IDC, global shipments for personal computers (including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) will have reached 86.7 million units by Q3 of 2021. This is an annual increase of 3.9% and it is also the 6^th consecutive quarter of growth. However, starting from Q2 this year, the growth rate has gradually slowed down due to the effects of the shortage of components and delays in global transportation. Regarding this, Acer and Delta indicated that channel inventory levels remain low but market demands are quite high. Because of this, demands for unfilled orders have highly exceeded the volume of total shipment for the quarter. This means that in the future, supply rather than demand will be an issue.

The boom for personal computers this year has also impacted Taiwan’s PCB industry. According to statistics of Taiwan's PCB production and sales figures for 2021’s previous three quarters, the output value of computer-related applications has increased by 26.6% compared with the same period last year - only second to substrate products. The overall PCB output value has also increased from 21.9% from the same period last year to 23.3%. This is the second-largest application market for PCB in Taiwan, ranking only second to mobile communications. Computer application-related PCB products are mainly composed of multi-layer substrates yet some manufacturers have slowly turned to the computer application market having been attracted by this boom. In view of this shift, these manufacturers are working to diversify the risk of product concentration in a single field as well as increase the resilience of enterprises should they confront future changes.