November’s TV Panel Shipments Fell Slightly but Chinese Manufacturers Overtook Taiwanese Rivals in Volume, TrendForce Reports

The latest large-size LCD panel shipment report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, says a total of 22.74 million LCD TV panels were shipped in November, representing just a 0.8% decrease compared with prior month and a 2.2% increase year on year. Iris Hu, WitsView assistant research manager, stated that since branded TV vendors are going to do an annual inventory check at the end of year, some of the December’s panel demand was pulled into November. Consequently, November’s monthly TV panel shipments saw only a small decline.

LG Display (LGD) posted the best TV panel shipment result in November with 4.82 million units shipped and monthly growth of 12.8%. LGD has been expanding its presence in China and is now the leader in LCD TV panel market on account of its close-knit relationships with its Chinese partners. The other South Korean panel maker Samsung Display Corp. (SDC) by contrast has had uneven performances through this year because it relied too much on purchase orders from the group company Samsung Electronics. Nonetheless, SDC’s monthly TV panel shipments for November grew 11.4% to 4.26 million units due to October having shorter shipment base period.

Taiwanese panel maker Innolux managed to post impressive results owing to Mexico’s procurement. With the last TV panel shipments to the country delivered in October, however, Innolux’s performance started to slide. Shipments of its 23.6-inch TV panels in particular suffered a sharp 42% monthly decline in November. As a result of the shipment plunge in this size segment, Innolux’s TV panel shipments on the whole fell 23.8% in the same month, totaling just 3.58 million units. This is the first time this year that Innolux saw an over 20% monthly drop in TV panel shipments, and the panel maker also lost its No. 3 spot in the TV panel shipment ranking. Major Chinese panel maker BOE Technology (BOE) replaced Innolux in November’s ranking with 3.61 million units shipped and a monthly growth of 3%. BOE continues to leverage its massive capacity to expand shipments and take orders away from competitors.

AU Optronics (AUO) has seen strong sales and restocking of its 43-inch panels, and this segment’s monthly shipments surpassed 600,000 units in November. The growth in 43-inch panel shipments helped raise AUO’s overall TV panel shipments in November to 2.41 million units, which was a new monthly record this year. However, AUO was still No. 6 in the TV panel shipment ranking, trailing behind China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT). CSOT remained in the No. 5 spot in November even though its TV panel shipments fell slightly by 0.4% compared with the prior month. It is likely that AUO and CSOT will continue to trade places in the ranking in the near future.