IHS Expects Unit Growth to Return to Display Driver ICs but Not Until 2022

Unit shipments of display driver ICs declined 3 percent globally last year to 7.9 billion, but revenue increased 0.4 percent to $6 billion, said IHS Markit Monday. Lower average unit pricing will cause revenue to decline in 2019 to $5.9 billion, said IHS. It expects unit demand won't rise again until 2022, and lower pricing will keep revenue growth “in negative territory.” Display module demand is “saturated” for LCD TVs, desktop monitors, laptops, tablets and smartphones, and that will suppress unit growth through 2021, it said. “As unit shipments of 8K TV panels rises to 10 million units in 2024, driver IC demand will also start to increase. Even so, driver IC revenue will continue to decline, as Chinese companies invest more aggressively in the market, which will drive prices even lower.” IHS estimates 30 percent of all driver ICs are used in TVs. The higher the TV’s screen resolution, the more driver ICs it will require, it said. Half of all TV panels shipped in 2019 will be 4K panels, rising to 60 percent in 2023, it said: “Consequently, source driver IC demand will also increase this year.”