Taiwan's AU Optronics profit dives 98 percent

Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp said Wednesday its net profit in the three months to September plummeted 98 percent from the previous quarter due to falling prices.

The firm, a leading flat-screen maker, said net profit in the period was 227 million Taiwan dollars (7.32 million US), compared with 11.25 billion Taiwan dollars in the previous three months.

The figure also represented a 97-percent fall from the same period last year, when the company reported a profit of 7.42 billion Taiwan dollars, it said.

AUO's revenue in the third quarter was down 3.3 percent from the previous quarter at 124 billion Taiwan dollars.

The company attributed the sharp declines to inventory adjustments by its customers and lower-than-expected panel prices.

"Looking into the fourth quarter, AUO will continuously adjust its capacity utilisation rates based on market demands," said company chief financial officer Andy Yang in a statement.

For the first nine months of 2010, the company reported a net profit of 18.74 billion Taiwan dollars on revenue of 364 billion dollars.

(c) 2010 AFP