Research by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, has shown that a total of 18.71 million units of large-sized LCD panels were shipped worldwide last month. This represents a fall of 5.8% when compared to January 2017, but a rise of 4.6% compared to the same month in 2016. The reason for the February fall was given as the low number of working days in the month.
February shipments of branded 65″ panels rose 4% compared with January, despite the overall monthly shipment fall in large-size LCD panels.
Iris Hu, the research manager of WitsView, said that panel demand from Chinese brands has started to pick up again, as they need to prepare for the major online promotion campaigns in April, and Chinese Labour Day sales in May. He went on to say that Chinese brands will mainly be stocking up on 55″ and 65″ panels as they can add more to the bottom line. He also stated that brands are abandoning panels in the 40″ to 43″ size range due to higher prices and low margins.
WitsView estimates that TV panel shipments this month will rise 10%, compared to February. However, for the first quarter of this year WitsView estimates a sequential drop from 11% to 12%, due to high prices impacting shipments for small- and medium-size panels.
In February, LG Display posted a 10.1% fall compared to the previous month, with output totalling 3.85 million units. The company also put off some deliveries frpm February to this month. Its shipments of mainstream 43″ and 55″ products fell 12.8% and 11.4% respectively, compared to January, but shipments of 65″ panels remained steady.
Innolux saw a monthly shipment rise of more than 30% for its 65″ panels, due to strong demand from Samsung Visual Display. The company’s shipments of 23.6″ panels rose by 14.1% compared with January, but for the entire large-size panel range, Innolux registered a marginal decline of 1.9%, compared to January with shipments of 3.13 million units. In all, Innolux suffered the smallest shipment decline among the six major panel makers in February.
BOE Technology shipped 2.93 million TV panels in February, which was a fall of 6.2% from the previous month. BOE’s shipments of 32″ panels dropped 10%, compared to January, due to a change in the production mix in its Gen-8.5 fab in Chongqing, China. The change meant that the production of 32″ TV panels was scaled back so that more of the fab’s capacity can be used to make notebook panels. This change enabled BOE to stabilise 32″ panel pricing. Combined shipments of 48″ and 49″ panels, increased 9.4%, compared to January. Panels prices in the 40″ to 43″ range rose due to decreasing market supply. In response, branded device vendors switched demand to larger sized panels which in turn benefited BOE’s shipments of 48″ and 49″ units.
China Star Optoelectronics Technology TV panel shipments totalled 2.8 million units in February, which was down 7.8%, compared to the previous month.
For February, Samsung Display shipped 2.72 million units of TV panels, representing a monthly decline of 5.5%. The company has been changing its production processes and equipment so as to increase its share of high-end UHD-resolution panels. This change was to help compensate for the revenue loss following the closure of L7-1 fab at the end of last year. The production change indirectly affected the company’s overall panel shipment decline in the month.
For AU Optronics, TV panel shipments declined 5.3% for February, to 2.1 million units. There were shipment increases for 50″ and the 55″ UHD products of 20% and 7.4% compared to January. Demand for these large-size, high-end and products continues to grow.
