A few days ago, Li Dongsheng, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of TCL Group (000100, SZ), said in an interview with the media in Beijing that because my country's electronic information industry has been in the dilemma of "short of cores and few screens", he will submit the "Recommendations on Promoting Key Technology Innovation and Promoting the Strategic Development of the Information Industry" at the second session of the 12th National People's Congress, suggesting that the government increase support and promote the development of the domestic LCD industry.
Specific measures include that the panel industry should be planned uniformly by the state to avoid rushing into duplication of construction, and in terms of tariff policies, we should increase the protection of domestic flat panel display companies and increase the import tariff rate of LCD panels to 8% to 10%. Li Dongsheng said that this is the second time he has suggested increasing panel tariffs.
In this regard, some people in the industry said that increasing panel tariffs will definitely be beneficial to the development of my country's panel industry. In the panel industry, product updates and market changes are relatively rapid. Manufacturers not only face domestic competition pressure, but also face competition pressure from Japanese and Korean manufacturers.
There are great difficulties in coordinating production capacity and implementing it. However, platforms such as the Flat Panel Display Industry Committee can be established, and corporate marketers, senior leaders, and technical personnel can regularly share information and technical exchanges on the platform.
Some preferential tariff policies expired last year
Li Dongsheng suggested adjusting the list of tax-free materials issued by the Ministry of Finance and Taxation [2012] No. 18 and extending the tax-free period for polarizers to the end of 2015; or including them in the ECFA tax-free list; including core materials such as flexible substrates, luminescent additives, high-purity metal aluminum wires, liquid desiccants, and glass glue required for OLED into the film crystal display tax-free list; adding G8.5 generation line element glass substrates to the list of tax-free imported materials, or lowering the tariff to 2%. Adjust the LCD panel tax item from the current "optical instruments or equipment" to "LCD TV special parts", and increase the current tentative tax rate of 5% to 8%~10%;
In addition, Li Dongsheng also suggested that since most of the process equipment for LCD panel manufacturing needs to be imported, investing in a 8.5-generation line of about 24.5 billion yuan will require an increase in imported equipment.
The value tax is about 2.2 billion yuan, which takes up a huge amount of corporate funds. If Cai Shui [2011] No. 107 continues to be implemented, the end-of-period VAT balance of imported equipment will be credited, which will alleviate the financial pressure on panel companies.
According to the National Finance and Taxation Document [2012] No. 18, in the list of duty-free imported productive raw materials, some molds and targets expired in 2012, while glass, polarizers, backlight modules, high-purity gases, etching fluids, chemicals for photolithography processes, color filters and chemical lotions expired in 2013. It is understood that the key raw material industry foundation in the upstream of these panels in China is weak and basically relies on imports.
In addition, the tax exemption policy specifically for the first batch of TFT-LCD manufacturers to import parts needed for maintenance of production equipment will also expire in 2015. According to the reporter's understanding, from 2012 to 2015, the duty-free import quota of parts and components of 12 manufacturers including BOE, China Star Optoelectronics, Shenzhen Super Optoelectronics and China Electronics Panda reached US$1.935 billion.
Li Dongsheng said that the equipment depreciation cost of new domestic projects is 8% higher than that of overseas manufacturers.
~10%, which is a difficulty that companies cannot overcome.
Li Dongsheng also said that from a global perspective, panel tariffs in emerging market countries such as Russia, Brazil, and India are 15% to 20%, while my country's panel tariffs are only 5%, and there is still room for improvement.
Tariff increases may accelerate the adjustment of the industry structure
It is understood that due to the late start of my country's panel industry, tariffs have always been a powerful tool to protect the panel industry.
In 2012, my country's panel import tariffs were raised to 5%, which directly promoted the development of panel manufacturers such as BOE and CSOT. In addition, some Korean panel companies have also chosen to set up 8.5-generation production lines in Kunshan, Jiangsu and Guangzhou, Guangdong.
In the upstream glass substrate field, most of the global market was previously occupied by manufacturers such as Corning of the United States and Japan's Electric Glass and Asahi Glass.
In December last year, after the Ministry of Finance raised the tentative tariff on LCD glass substrates of 6th generation and below from 4% in 2013 to 6%, glass substrate manufacturer Dongxu Optoelectronics
and *ST Rainbow have begun supplying panel manufacturers such as BOE.
In this regard, some analysts pointed out that if my country adjusts panel tariffs, it may become a trend for overseas manufacturers to set up factories.
ANNA