According to the latest TV panel shipment survey report by WitsView, TrendForce, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in February, TV panel shipments in February were driven by rising panel prices and the fact that panel makers still have inventories. Only a small monthly decrease of 3.5%, reaching 20.073 million pieces, compared with the original target set a year ago, the decline rate has also converged from 18% to 10.2%.
TrendForce estimates that although TV panel shipments in March are still down by 6.1% compared to the shipment target set a year earlier, as the impact of the epidemic on manpower, logistics and materials slows down, shipments may increase by 14% compared to February , reaching 22.9 million pieces.
The TV panel shipment ranking was reshuffled, and Huaxing topped the list for the first time
Observing the performance of the top six panel makers, CSOT is not only least affected by the epidemic due to the earliest resumption time and sufficient materials, but also actively sprints shipments when prices and demand are both rising, shipping in February The monthly volume increased by 0.2% to 3.726 million pieces, surpassing BOE to take the first place for the first time.
Although BOE, which has multiple product lines, obtained the license after the outbreak of the epidemic, due to the different locations of each factory, the problem of manpower shortage is more significant than other panel factories; in addition, it is also affected by the insufficient supply of upstream components (POL&PCB). Multiple factors caused BOE’s February shipments to drop by 14.1% to 3.46 million units, ranking second and the lowest since June 2017.
Although HKC faced material shortages, its shipments in January were delayed to February due to the impact of the Spring Festival. Not only did the shipments increase by 64.7% month-on-month to 2.605 million pieces, but they also jumped to the third place in monthly shipments, becoming the Big dark horse this month.
Innolux not only delayed the resumption of the back-end IC bonding factory, but also faced the problem of lack of manpower and materials, resulting in a sharp decrease of 15.2% in February shipments to 2.511 million units, ranking fourth.
Korean panel factories are relatively limited by the impact of the epidemic. Although Samsung Display (SDC) Suzhou factory briefly faced the problem of insufficient manpower in IC bonding factories in February, the increase in panel prices at the beginning of the year prompted Samsung Display to increase the utilization rate of Korean production lines. Shipments still edged up 1.4% from January to 2.055 million units, ranking fifth. LG Display (LGD) did not have much material problems, but the lack of working days in February and the decision to close the LCD TV production line in South Korea in the second half of last year affected the shipment performance. In February, shipments decreased by 4.4% to 1.983 million units, ranking sixth. , but monthly shipments hit a record low.
1Q20 TV panel shipments are expected to decrease by 5.6% compared to the target set a year earlier
TrendForce predicts that, despite the poor shipment completion rate in February and March, TV panel shipments in the first quarter will drop to 63.782 million units, with quarterly and annual performance declining by 12.7% and 8.9%, respectively, which is the same as the previous year. It also decreased by 5.6% compared to the previous plan. However, the sudden drop in supply has instead pushed up the price of TV panels in the first quarter, which is higher than expected.
Looking forward to the second quarter, with some demand deferral and panel makers sprinting shipments to deplete front-end cell inventories, shipments may increase by 7.1% quarter-on-quarter. However, the current spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic to the world will seriously impact the overall economic environment. Under the bad situation of rising unemployment and declining global GDP, it will greatly weaken the disposable income of consumers. With the gradual return of upstream and downstream supply chains to normal At the same time, the problem of supply and demand may resurface.
The Links: CLAA150XG07 PD200KN16