At the start of this year, the United States Department of Commerce conducted a preliminary review of the anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) measures against Chinese photovoltaic (PV) cell imports for 2012 and reduced the overall tariff rate from 30% to 17.5%. Consequently, advantages are lost for Taiwanese cell manufacturers facing tariff rates between 11.45% and 27.55%. Cell prices since then have also seen a steady decline.
Traditional memory module manufacturers are currently facing challenges in shipping memory cards and flash drives, according to the latest analysis by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. These products, which are major sources of revenue for these companies, are struggling the market due to the rise of cloud storage services and the increasing emphasis on high-density flash storage design that is driven by Apple’s iPhones.
WitsView, a division of TrendForce, has made downward revisions to shipment forecasts of monitors and notebooks for this year’s second and third quarters according to its latest research. The revision is based on the depreciation of the euro and the emerging markets’ currencies as well as other factors.