Screen price drop crashes Hitachi LCD targets

Hitachi warned yesterday that it would miss its LCD sales targets this year, blaming the falling costs of the screens for the depressed figures.

The company said that prices of 14.1-inch screens had fallen 40 per cent from last year, because other manufacturers had increased production, flooding the market. This, combined with a slower US economy, would severely impact sales, it said.

The company had forecast sales of LCDs would reach $1.5 billion for the year ending March 31, 2001. As yet, no revised figures have been made available to The Register. However, the company did say that net income would reach $1.08 billion on sales of $72.51 billion.

Hitachi executives are keen to deflect attention from the company specifically, saying that the whole industry will be affected.

Market research also indicates that the prices are unlikely to level out soon.

However, some industry figures suggest that price cuts will attract more corporate customers, and that the low prices will help build volume sales. ®