At LG Display’s Chinese Partner Day, the company’s CMO commented that sales of OLED TV panels in China have so far proved weaker than expected and lower than those seen in Europe, the US and Japan. Because of this, the company has dropped its 2018 sales forecast for China from 250,000 panels to 210,000.
Previously, the company saw a doubling of OLED TV panels sold to downstream partners in China, jumping up from 60,000 to 120,000 between 2016 and 2017. Reaching 210,000 units in 2018 would match the company’s global growth trajectory, though LG says they had anticipated faster growth in China, with some of the panels it had earmarked for the country eventually being sold to partners in other territories.
LG recently announced plans to increase the price of its OLED TV panels in response to healthy end user sales. The company’s first China-based production facility is scheduled to commence production next year.
Analyst Comment
As we reported from IFA, the GfU quoted data that more than 40% of the global OLED TV market is in Europe. I suspect that is partly because Europeans are less concerned about really large TVs than the US or China. In fact, LG Display last year, at its OLED TV day in Munich, promised to develop a smaller than 55″ OLED panel for Europe. However, there has been no sign, yet and at IFA, several local TV brands expressed a strong desire for such a panel. (BR)
