According to the latest investigations by the WitsView research division of TrendForce, the oversupply of TV panels in 2019 resulted in a major price drop. As such, panel manufacturers hoped to utilize their excess capacity in 2020 through increasing their production of monitor panels, with Samsung Display (SDC) having the most extensive plans. However, given the recent spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the market has adopted a pessimistic outlook regarding end device demand. The latest news indicates that SDC has informed its clients that it will exit the LCD market by the end of the year. This news is expected to lead to a major reshuffle in the monitor panel market.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to accelerate and cause damage to the global economy and consumers’ purchasing power, TrendForce has compiled its latest report on the statuses of key electronics component and downstream industries, with data last updated on March 26, 2020. The report provides a deep dive into the pandemic’s influences on several high-tech industries.
According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, its latest TV research report shows that the threat of looming China-US trade war tariff covered the year 2019. Besides, consumers' habits of using TVs were changed, so demand was indirectly reduced. Fortunately, brands' promotional campaigns during Black Friday and November 11 were helped by massive fall of TV panel prices in 4Q19. Thus, the TV set shipment only slightly declined by 0.8% YoY in 2019, reaching 217.8 million units.
According to the latest investigations by the WitsView research division of TrendForce, despite the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, February TV panel shipments were propped up by rising panel ASPs and panel manufacturers’ existing stock. Monthly TV panel shipment decreased by 3.5% MoM in February, reaching 20.073 million units. This figure is a 10.2% decline from the shipment target set in 2019 but remains higher than previously projected decline of 18%.
Under the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the notebook supply chain is facing many challenges in work resumption delays, labor shortages, material shortages, and logistic/transportation restrictions. TrendForce is hereby lowering its February notebook shipment forecast from 10.8 million units previously to 5.7 million units, a 47.6% decrease YoY.