Both SI and brand monitor shipments fall 11% in December 2008, says WitsView

Taipei, January 22, 2009---According to WitsView, the Top 10 SIs shipped a total of 7.9 million monitors in December. This amounted to a MoM drop of 11.8%. In the wake of the continuous macroeconomic woes, the decline was mainly attributed to the SIs’ inventory clearing since November, along with December’s year-end inventory accounting. The sharp production drop resulted in a higher-than-expected shipment decline in December. Due to the New Year and Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, a subtle demand increase was reflected in December’s survey. Thanks to the stronger pull-in from some clients, SIs such as Innolux, Techview and Jean experienced positive growth.

Worldwide top 5 LCD monitor SI shipments by unit in December (Unit: K pcs)

On the other hand, most brand vendors experienced a double-digit MoM decline, due to the year-end inventory clearing and persisting economic slowdown. The aggregated shipment figures were relatively consistent with WitsView’s original projections, where it was down roughly by 11.9%. In addition, with the global economy still uncertain, brand vendors are currently unable to draw out a concrete business plan for 2009. Coupled by their conservative attitude, some rush orders have appeared. Yet, due to the low utilization rates and required time in acquiring relevant components, not all of the orders can be accommodated now.

Looking at the respective shipments of the top 10 monitor brands, the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year and winter sales promotion helped Lenovo and AOC maintain strong sales, who both have a strong presence in China. Finally, the other brand vendors were mainly attributed to the year-end fiscal accounting and focused on minimizing their inventory.

Worldwide top 5 LCD monitor brand shipments in December (Unit: K pcs)

Note: The production volume covers both own-brand and outsourcing manufacturing.

More information on LCD monitor SI and brand shipments are available on WitsView's web site at http://www.witsview.com/MarketTrend/Default.aspx

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