Several negative “macro level factors” combined to create “significant headwinds” for the Himax Technologies business in Q2, said CEO Jordan Wu on a Thursday earnings call. Himax supplies display-driver chips to the major panel makers and is viewed as an accurate bellwether of display industry conditions. Q2 revenue of $312.6 million was down 14.4% year over year and was 24.3% lower than Q1. High inflation, rapidly rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine and the potential for more Chinese COVID lockdowns “caused widespread disruption to demand,” said Wu. “Faced with frozen demand, tied-up inventory and eroding panel prices, brands are downsizing their panel procurement plans,” he said. “Consequently, panel makers initiated downward and extended fab utilization adjustments along with rigorous IC inventory cuts. The sudden halt in demand together with the rise of our production lead time has led to elevated inventory levels for Q3.” Himax is “naturally cutting back on new orders with our suppliers,” said Wu. “However, the contracts that we entered with foundries and back-end suppliers when the industry experienced unprecedented demand in 2021 may incur charges if the minimum purchase orders are not fulfilled.”

Sharp’s Device division said Tuesday its Reflective IGZO (R-IGZO) 5-inch display for handheld applications is available in a backlit option. The upgraded version is said to improve sunlight viewability with low power consumption. Samples are available now, with mass production to start in Q1, the company said. The R-IGZO portrait-mode display is designed for battery-powered, handheld products that require full-color and high-resolution performance in bright outdoor environments. The panel offers “ultra-low power consumption” for still and motion images and “industrial-strength” operating temperature ranges, Sharp said.

The display industry’s current glut of LCD panels is expected to persist through the full-year 2023 and “slowly correct thereafter,” projected Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. DSCC estimates LCD panel capacity increased 10% year over year in 2021 and another 5% in 2022 to date, even after the mid-year closure of Samsung Display’s last LCD production line, it said. Capacity is forecast to grow another 3% in 2023 despite the expected closure of LG Display’s P7 LCD line, it said. Though demand growth of 7% in 2023 is expected to be higher than supply growth, “the recovery does not make up enough ground to justify high utilization,” it said.

LCD TV panel prices, having already reached all-time lows, are continuing to decline in Q3, albeit at a slower pace than in Q2, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. It’s forecasting “no recovery at all” in panel prices until 2023. The “perfect storm” of an oversupply, near-universally weak demand and excessive inventory throughout the supply chain is keeping TV panel prices at record lows at “every screen size,” it said. Though fab utilization slowed sharply in July, “we do not see any signal to suggest that prices can increase anytime soon,” it said.

Global shipments of near-eye displays for extended-reality applications are expected to reach 25.3 million units in 2022, up 73.8% year over year, before reaching 139 million units in 2028, reported Omdia Tuesday. Sales of XR devices are growing due to increasing gaming, industrial, medical and commercial demand, it said. Omdia expects revenue growth to peak in 2023, mainly because more brands are expected to adopt OLED on silicon for near-eye devices in 2023 with higher unit prices, it said.

Nearly a month into the quarter, the sharp slowdown in Q3 display-panel fab utilization is “even more severe” than previously projected, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. “After a full year of panel prices falling with no end in sight, and after the entire display supply chain built excessive inventory, panel makers started to reduce utilization in Q2 and the slowdown has accelerated in Q3,” said DSCC. The factory slowdown is “broad-based” across China, Taiwan and Japan, but South Korea utilization is increasing due to the “dramatically higher share” of its capacity devoted to OLED panel production, compared with other regions, it said. DSCC estimates 45% of South Korea’s display fab capacity is apportioned to OLED, compared with only 5% in China and “negligible” share in all other regions. “While OLED is not immune to the general market downturn in both TVs and smartphones and has lower utilization in 2022 as a result, the seasonality of OLED smartphone sales remains a dominant attribute in the market,” said DSCC.

Tianma signed a contract last month to invest $1.2 billion in a new display module “production line project” in Wuhu, China, said the panel maker’s U.S. subsidiary Wednesday. The line will produce display modules for laptops, tablets and desktop monitors, plus automotive and industrial applications, said Tianma. Construction is planned to begin in November, with the first mass production due to start in 2024, it said.

Pixelworks is working with Lightstorm Entertainment, director James Cameron’s production company, under a “multi-title licensing agreement,” to bring its TrueCut Motion image-grading technology to Avatar, Titanic and other feature films, said Pixelworks Tuesday. TrueCut Motion, according to Pixelworks, offers filmmakers advanced mastering tools to control how motion is rendered in their films when modern consumer TVs with HDR, high resolution and high frame rates can compromise motion integrity. TCL at CES 2022 became the first consumer device company to publicly endorse TrueCut Motion in its smart TVs (see 2202110002).

LG Business Solutions’ 75-inch 4K Ultra NanoCell TV received UL 62368-1 certification for use in healthcare, the company said Monday. Hospitality and healthcare integrators can manage the TVs remotely over IP and create customized interfaces using simple on-board editing tools. It has a commercial installer menu with several settings for use in patient rooms, split-screen capability and a software-enabled access point, which provides additional Wi-Fi hot spots for patients and visitors, the company said.

Global OLED smartphone panel revenue is expected to decline 16% this year to $317 billion due to macroeconomic headwinds, weakened consumer demand, persistent supply chain issues due to COVID-19 lockdowns in China and “concerns regarding inventory product buildup,” reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. All major smartphone brands “have reduced their OLED smartphone panel procurements for 2022 by single- and double-digit percentages,” said DSCC. OLED smartphone panel unit volume is projected to decrease 5% year over year to 592 million, it said.