Large-Size Panels Saw a 13.6% Decline in February’s Shipments While Notebook Panels Prospered, TrendForce Reports

The newest display panel shipment report from WitsView, a division of TrendForce, states that the February shipments of large-size panels totaled 56.71M units. This a 13% drop compared with the previous month and a 1.9% drop compared with the same period of the prior year. TV panel shipments in particular fell by 11.8% compared with the previous month, at 19.49M units. Compared with the previous year’s month, however, it is an increase of 13.7%. Attributing factors to the declining TV panel shipments include the reduction of work days due to the Chinese New Year holidays, the seasonality influences, and clients adjusting inventory levels. 

The demands for IT panels are weak in February. Monitor panel shipments totaled 11.4M units, a decrease of 12.9% when set against January. For notebook panels sized 10.1 inches and above, some January shipments had been delayed and carried over to February. Consequently, the monthly shipments grew by 8.2% compared to the same month of the previous year, totaling 15.36M units. Weak tablet shipments continued to affect tablet panel shipments, which reached 12.39M units in February, or a monthly decrease of 29.8%. 

According to WitsView’s Assistant Research Manager Winnie Chen, the shipments of LCD TV panels will increase in March by 10% due to the short shipment period in February. The March TV panel shipments will also benefit from the pickup demands from the Chinese Labor Day sales. New stock-up demands from international brand vendors as they roll out new TV models will be an additional positive influence during that period. Among applications, monitor panel shipments will have a monthly increase of 4% in March. Meanwhile, notebook and tablet panel shipments are estimated to have monthly increases of 9% and 28% respectively. 

In the company of the six major panel makers, LGD was still number one in terms of units shipped in February, but it suffered a monthly decline of 8%. SDC followed at number two thanks to the increase in its IT panel shipments. Its total number of panels shipped in February is roughly the same as January’s. Innolux was at the third place in February shipments. Although Innolux enjoyed a double-digit growth in the shipments of 18.5-inch monitor panel, the reduction of work days led to a fall in shipments of mainstream sizes. The total panel shipments therefore suffered a monthly decline of close to 20%. The fourth place was occupied by AUO, with its overall February shipments fell by 10% compared with the prior month. This performance was mainly attributed to a plunge of nearly 30% in tablet panel shipments. 

A breakdown of size categories shows that the TV panel shipments of mainstream sizes posted negative growths in February. The exception was the new 43-inch TV panels, which were released to the market and had a double-digit growth in the monthly shipments. At the same time, the increases in the shipments of 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch panels benefitted the notebook application. The notebook panel shipments went against the trend and grew with LGD, SDC, and Chinese makers posting double-digit performances. The shipments of monitor panels, on the other hand, were visibly affected by seasonality. Brand vendors furthermore had entered a period of inventory adjustment. Thus, monitor panels of mainstream sizes (18.5, 19.5 and 21.5-inch) all saw double-digit negative growth. The off-season affected tablet panels as well. Tablet panels of all sizes saw shipment decline except the 11.6-inch, which showed a two-digit performance.