Sumitomo Chemical‘s polarizing plate production capacity is 30, and one production line in Taiwan will be discontinued

Source: Money DJ

    Manufacturers in Chinese Mainland have increased production and oversupply. Sumitomo Chemical of Japan plans to reduce the production capacity of polarizer by 30%. One production line of its factory in Tainan, Taiwan, China, China will stop production.

    On January 29th, Nikkei News reported that Sumitomo Chemical plans to reduce the production capacity of its LCD panel material "polarizer" by 30% before the end of the autumn of 2024, mainly due to a decline in demand for televisions and other products. However, Chinese manufacturers have successively increased production, leading to oversupply. According to Omdia, a British research firm, Sumitomo Chemical Polarizers had the second highest global market share in 2022.

    The report points out that in addition to polarizing panels, Sumitomo Chemical‘s Korean subsidiary factory, which produces liquid crystal panel materials such as color filters (CF), will partially close by the end of March 2024, mainly due to the rise of Chinese factories and the reduction of LCD panel production by Korean companies as customers.

    Sumitomo Chemical fell 0.32% on the 29th and closed at 340.3 yen. Its stock price has fallen 1.08% so far this year, far behind the overall performance of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Index (TOPIX), which rose 6.89% during the same period.