CONNECT WITH US

Highlights of the day: China mulling ways to rejuvenate handset market

DIGITIMES staff

Handset sales in China have plummeted in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which has hit hard both production and consumer confidence. The Chinese governmet reportedly is mulling measures to rejuvenate the handset market, including offering subsidies for 5G phone purchases. While many makers see diffulties returning to normal production, e-paper solution provider EIH says it expects full-scale production resumption in China by the end of March. And as the outbreak has convinced many companies of the need to move some of their production out of China, LED firm Epistar has plans to shift some of the production of its backlighting applications from Taiwan to China in order to hike overall production efficiency.

China reportedly to offer subsidies to rejuvenate handset market: China's government and telecom operator are reportedly to join forces to rejuvenate its dwindling handset market by offering subsidies to consumers for the purchases of 5G phones, with related measures likely to be materialized by the end of the first quarter, according to sources from Taiwan's IC suppliers.

EIH to see full-scale production resumption in China by end of March: E-paper solution provider E Ink Holdings (EIH) has said that about 600-700 out of its 1,000 employees have returned to its plant in Yangzhou, China enabling the facotry to resume about 40-50% of its production capacity currently.

Epistar to hike production capacity for mini LEDs: LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Epistar, optimistic about demand for mini LED applications, has disclosed it will allocate NT$3.5 billion (US$116.51 million) to expand production capacity for mini LEDs.