TrendForce Expects Decline in LCD Monitor Shipments for 2015 to Reach 5% YoY Due to Lackluster Demands

WitsView, a research division of TrendForce, has revised the estimated shipments of LCD monitors for 2015 downward to a negative year-on-year growth of 5%. This decline in shipments is based on three major factors. Firstly, demands in the commercial market saw further decline instead of recovery during the first quarter. Secondly, currency depreciation has severely affected Eurozone, Russia and the emerging markets. Lastly, brand vendors are adjusting their product mixes to give priority to large-size and niche products, which do not contribute much to the shipment volume compared with other mainstream products. 

According to WitsView’s Research Manager Anita Wang, the commercial market slumped in the first quarter because the prior year’s replacement demand for commercial desktops failed to extend to this year’s first quarter as the market had hoped. Consequently, monitor demands have been weakened. Furthermore, the vendors in the downstream are facing rising set costs because of the wide slide of euro, Russian ruble and Brazilian real. Although panel prices have been falling on a monthly basis, many brand vendors and sales channels have raised their products’ retail prices to offset the losses incurred by the high currency depreciation in the affected countries. The price increases in turn have dragged down the stock-up in the channels as well as the end demands, leading to a weaker-than-expected LCD monitor demand during the first half of 2015. 

Moreover, many brand vendors are sticking with the strategy of maintaining profitability by promoting large-size and niche products. And no other brands has done more in making this kind of product mix adjustments than Samsung. In addition to raising the ratio for monitors sized 23 inches and above from 41% in 2014 to over 50% this year, the vendor is also aggressively promoting curved-screen LCD monitors, which represented 5% of its April shipments. Samsung is currently the leader in brand penetration for curved-screen LCD monitors. 

Besides the demand situation in Europe and emerging markets made worse by currency depreciation, China’s internal demand has also shifted downward and its monitor market will not rebound anytime soon. The U.S., by contrast, is experiencing an economic recovery that have stabilized monitor demands and kept up shipments. ASUS and Acer, for example, achieved better shipment results in the U.S. compared with other markets.