BOE's profit falls nearly 31% in H1 amid oversupply situation

BOE, China’s biggest LCD panel maker, suffered a nearly 31 percent drop in net profit in the first half of the year amid an oversupply of LCD panels in the market, the Shenzhen-listed firm said in a statement today.

But BOE is banking on new growth engines like the Internet of Things and new-technology display for smartphones, the company said.

In the first six months, BOE's net profit fell 30.9 percent from a year ago to 2.97 billion yuan (US$428 million). Its revenue shed 2.54 percent from a year ago to 43.5 billion yuan.

BOE, which has over 10 production lines in China, produced 25 percent of the world's LCD panels in 2017. The LCD panels are used in  TVs, smartphones and IoT devices, according to researcher IHS. 

Despite growing sales, the company is facing an oversupply pressure since 2017, which erodes revenue and profit, BOE said.

BOE said that the IoT business grew 4.1 percent year on year to 7.35 billion yuan in the period.