TrendForce Reports Panel Shipments Recovered in March with Large-Size Panels Seeing 17.3% Increase over Prior Month

The latest large-size panel shipment report from WitsView, a division of TrendForce, shows that the March shipments of large-size panels totaled 68.82M units. This figure represents a 17.3% increase over the prior month and a 3.4% year-on-year increase. The large-size panel market is recovering from February’s shipment slump as vendors stock up in preparation for the Chinese Labor Day sales. International brand vendors are also readying to roll out new TV models, further strengthening the demands for large-size panels. These rising demands increased LCD TV panel monthly shipments by 20.6%, totaling 23.51M units. 

As for IT panel shipments, demands started to pick up in March because of the short shipment period in February and the arrival of new products on the market. Monitor panel shipments in March reached 12.36M units, an increase of 8.4% compared with the prior month but still under the expected growth of 11.6%. The shipment growth of notebook panels was affected by some brand vendors that were still clearing their inventories. Moreover, the arrival of new models on the market had limited contribution to the stock-up demand. The March shipments for notebook panels sized 10.1 inches and above totaled 16.1M units, an increase of 4.7% over February. 

The March shipments of tablet panels increased by 35.8% compared with the previous month and totaled 16.83M units. The growth in tablet shipments was also due to February’s short shipment period and rising demands in southern China. Tablet panels sized 7 inches and 10.1 inches in particular saw significant shipment growths. 

A breakdown of shipments based on applications indicates that the sum of TV panel shipments for this year’s first quarter was 65.09M units, representing a 0.8% decrease over the previous quarter but a 17.2% increase when set against the same period of the prior year. Panels sized 32 inches and under were the main source of the growth. Innolux’s 23.6-inch and 32-inch from Korean and Chinese manufacturers had best shipment results, with quarterly increases up to 20% for some products. 

The first quarter shipments of monitor panels totaled 36.87M units, a 6.6% decline set against the prior quarter and a 2.8% year-on-year decline compared with the same quarter of the prior year. The market for monitor panels of mainstream sizes still shows signs of depression as quarterly shipments for 18.5-inch, 19.5-inch, and 21.5-inch fell respectively by 19.2%, 7.3%, and 6.5%. The first quarter shipments of notebook panels amounted to 46.63M units, showing a 1.4% drop compared with the prior quarter but a year-on-year increase of 8%. Notebook panels of mainstream sizes, such as 11.6-inch, 12.5-inch and 14-inch, all posted positive quarterly shipment growths. The increases in the first two size categories were driven by the launching of new notebook models, while the 14-inch category benefitted from Microsoft’s subsidy scheme and being the model size from India’s state contracts. Tablet panels, by contrast, saw negative shipment growths across all mainstream sizes for the first quarter. 46.9M units of tablet panels were shipped, a 29% decline compared with the prior quarter and year-on-year decline of 8%. 

In her panel shipments outlook for the second quarter, WitsView’s Assistant Research Manager Winnie Chen said Chinese Labor Day sales, an event which has propped up demands since 2010, will not be able create the same level of market drive as before. The reason behind this is promotional sales activities in China has become more frequent and spread out throughout the year, so the enormous shipment growths of the past years will not be reproduced this year. Nonetheless, panel demands from international brand vendors remain as their new products will be coming out soon. Based on WitsView’s projection, the second quarter’s TV panel shipments will have a 1.2% quarterly growth and a 5.2% year-on-year growth. The demands in the second quarter is going to be even stronger than the sales season at this year’s end. 

In other applications, there are no particular demands that will stimulate shipment growths for monitor panels during the second quarter, but new products will still drive the market. WitsView estimates monitor panel will post a 6.6% quarterly increase and a 2.8% year-on-year decline. The overall demands will stay stagnant. As for notebook panels, their shipments will rise as vendors start to get ready for the back to school sales and the new Intel CPU platform, which will arrive in the third quarter. Apple will also be launching its new MacBook with the next generation Intel Core i7 processor in the near future. Hence, WitsView predicts notebook panel shipments in the second quarter will increase by 10.4% over the previous period as well as having a 9% year-on-year growth. Tablet panel shipments, on the other hand, will see a quarterly decline of 8% and a steep 24% year-on-year fall as the scheduled launches of new product models have been delayed.