‘Unstable Market Environment’

Top LCD TV Makers Pull Back Shipment Plans for Q1, DisplaySearch Says

January 12, 2011 by Rebecca Day|Top News

The top 16 LCD TV brands have scaled back planned production by nearly 3 million units total, from 18.3 million in November 2010 to 15.4 million in March 2011, according to DisplaySearch. Q1 LCD production is forecast to be 46.3 million units, down 12 percent from Q4 of 2010, according to the latest DisplaySearch LCD “Industry Dynamics” report, which points to an “unstable market environment” creating “uncertainty regarding TV demand.” Despite the caution of the top TV brands, LCD TV OEMs and ODMs are increasing monthly shipments from December 2010 to March 2011, indicating that TV brands are increasing outsourcing manufacturing because of cost management, logistics, manufacturing scale and “in some cases, access to panel supply,” DisplaySearch said.

Supplies of key components including glass substrates, color filters, polarizers, LED and light guide plates are in balance for Q1, the report said. It said large-area TFT LCD panel shipments will drop 2 percent this month from December because of adjustments in capacity utilization rates. They'll fall a further 7 percent in February because of reduced working days in China but will jump in March, when shipments are expected to pass 60 million units, the report said.

Panel inventories at the top five TFT LCD makers -- Samsung, LG Display, AUO, Chimei Innolux and CPT -- fell to “safe levels” at the end of 2010, the report said. TFT LCD makers will reduce utilization rates in January and February but expect to be at more than 90 percent around the world by March, it said. The top 10 LCD monitor OEMs plan to increase production in January by 4.3 percent from December to more than 14 million units but plan to reduce February and March production to just over 12 million units, the report said. LCD TV panel shipments to China were 5.1 million units in November and slipped to 5 million units in December. The slide is expected to continue into 2011 to 4.6 million units in January and 3.2 million units in February, DisplaySearch said.