Panel shipments fall by 23.7% in November on weaker demand and supply, reports WitsView

Taipei, December 17, 2008---According to WitsView’s survey, worldwide large-size panel shipments in November reached 25.83 million units, a 23.7% MoM and 26.4% YoY decline. The shipment drop during the traditional strong season stemmed from the brand vendors’ cut back in orders, as the persisting macroeconomic woes weighed on the end market demand. In the NB segment, only 7.86 million 12.1” and above panels were shipped. This was equivalent to a staggering drop of 28.4%. Aside from the sluggish end market demand, the sales momentum of such products were also affected by the growing popularity of the below 11” netbooks. Meanwhile, monitor panels fell by 23% to 10.46 million units, an indication of the continued difficulty in effectively clearing away the accumulated inventory. Finally, TV panels fell to 7.51 million units, down by 19.3% MoM. In contrast to the monthly change during the same period of last year, shipments fell by a mere 2%. Despite the arrival of the year-end Christmas sales, it can be seen that the market environment remains in a slowdown.

TFT-LCD Panel Shipment (K units)

 The aggregated large-sized panel area shipments slipped from 5.99 million square meters in October to 4.72 million square meters in November, down by 21% MoM and 19% YoY. In the NB segment, they fell by 29.5% MoM to 530 thousand square meters. Meanwhile, the area shipments of TVs and monitors dropped respectively by 19.3% and 21.3% MoM to 2.92 million and 1.27 million square meters. In general, due to the weakness in the larger-sized panel shipments, which can more effectively consume the glass substrate input, along with the panel makers’ utilization cutbacks, the aggregated panel shipments in Q4 continued to fall.

TFT-LCD Panel Area Shipment (K square meter)

About WitsView

Founded in the year 2004, WitsView, a subsidiary brand of DRAMeXchange, is composed of a team of TFT-LCD industry experts. The research field covers the development and market trend of upstream components, mid stream panels and downstream system integrators and retailers.
For more about WitsView, please visit www.witsview.com