Global TV Panel Shipment Grew by 9.1% Monthly in May, BOE Surpassed LGD and Ranked the First, Says TrendForce

According to the latest report by WitsView, a division of TrendForce, global TV panel shipments reached 23.52 million in May, a 9.1% growth over the previous month. Although branded TV makers have purchased fewer panels since 2Q18 in order to adjust their inventory levels, the panel makers still have high utilization rates. In the situation, they planned special deal projects to increase the shipments, which would probably further lower the panel prices.

The panel shipments have shown some improvements in June. “The TV set retail prices in Chinese 618 mid-season sales have been 20% lower than in 315 sales”, says Iris Hu, the research manager of WitsView, “which may stimulate the channel sales and consume inventories.” Going forward to the end of 2Q, TV panel prices have approached the cash costs. TV brands are expected to stock up panels in advance, on considering the limited room for further price decline. “Therefore, we expect the TV panel shipments in June to be roughly the same as May.

BOE returned to the top of shipment ranking thanks to special deal projects, Innolux ranked the second with 42.5 % monthly growth

BOE has adjusted the product mixes of its Gen 8.5 fab, increasing the share of 55-inch panels, of which the shipment reached a record high of 590,000 pieces. In terms of small size products, BOE has shipped all 600,000 pieces of 32-inch panels in the inventory at special deal prices, and the total shipments of this size reached 2.578 million pieces, a growth of 30.2% over last month. In total, BOE shipped 4.774 million pieces of TV panels in May, a monthly growth of 19%. This is a new high record of BOE’s shipments, bringing the company back to the top of shipment ranking.

Innolux recorded relatively low shipments in April due to poor demand, ending up with high inventory level for 39.5-inch and 50-inch panels. Similar to BOE, Innolux also provided special deal projects, consuming nearly 40% of 39.5-inch panels’ inventory. Its shipments for 39.5-inch panels increased significantly by 136% to 1.37 million pieces in May. In total, Innolux shipped 3.817 million pieces of TV panels, a growth of 42.5% month-on-month. With the highest shipment growth among the six major panel makers, Innolux returned to the second place in the ranking.

Panel price drop has reduced the customers’ willingness to stock up, LDG’s shipments decreased by 7% monthly in May

LDG has also been influenced by the panel price drop starting from 2Q18, which lowered the customers’ willingness to stock up. As the result, the shipments of LGD have been decreasing for two consecutive months. The mainstream size, 43-65-inch products recorded a shipment decline of 9.4%. On the whole, LDG shipped 3.643 million pieces of TV panels in May, a decrease of 7% compared with previous month. The decline appeared to be the steepest among the six major panel makers.

CSOT, one of the major suppliers of 32-inch panels, has adjusted the product mixes to reduce the risks of stocking up 32-inch products. The shipments of 43-inch and 49-inch products grew by 38.8% and 21.1% compared with last month. Yet in total, the monthly shipments of CSOT for all sizes still declined by 3.1% to 3.241 million pieces.

Samsung Display (SDC) started its annual maintenance of Korean fab in April amid the weak demand in Q2, resulting in low production volume and shipments in April and May. In June, SDC shipped 400,000 pieces of 65-inch panels thanks to its production scale and cost advantages. For all size, SDC shipped 3.15 million pieces in May, a 2.8% increase over the last month.

AUO's TV panel shipments recorded 2.005 million pieces in May, a monthly decline of 1.1%. This was mainly attributed to the customers’ lower willingness to stock up because of the overall poor demand and the continued drop in panel prices. The shipments of 50-inch and 55-inch panels declined by 6.3% and 7.8% respectively.