What They Say
Taiwanese analyst, TrendForce Research forecast that shipments of panels for LCD monitors in Q2 2022 will be down 11.3% to 42.5 million. That’s down from earlier expectations as brands were fairly optimistic earlier this year and bought a lot of panels, so shipments in Q1 were 47.9 million, up 20% from 2021 – the best Q1 result since 2012.
However the market has cooled and targets have been revised downward, while panel purchase has been restricted. The report blames the weaking macroeconomic outlook globally for a reduction in capex on IT by firms. The situation has been made worse by an improving logistics situation as shipping and port congestion gradually eased in 1H22.
TrendForce forecasts that LCD monitor panel shipments will continue to decline to 37.8 million units in 3Q22, representing a QoQ decline of 11.2%. In 4Q22, there is a chance shipments will rebound marginally to 38.8 million units due to the sales surge initiated by monitor brands at the end of the year, representing a quarterly increase of 2.8%. Annual shipments are forecast to reach 167 million units, a drop of 3.6% YoY.
What We Think
This is consistent with all that we have heard about weaker demand but in Q1, corporate sales were still reasonable, even though consumer demand was weakening. That bit of support for demand seems to have gone, now. (BR)
