Despite a massive influx of manufacturing capacity, the global large-sized liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel market is expected to experience tighter supply in the second quarter, research house iSuppli Corp announced.
The overall supply-demand balance for large-sized LCD panels is expected to narrow to 2.4 percent in the current quarter, down from a wider margin of 3.1 percent in the January-March quarter, iSuppli said in a report released on Wednesday.
The margin would rebound to 4.8 percent in the third quarter and then keep rising to 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the El Segundo, California-headquartered research institute predicted.
The short-term contraction of supply comes from increasing demand for panels used for desktop computer monitors and LCD TVs, combined with the slow ramp-up of new LCD production capacity, the report read.
The supply of 17-inch LCD monitor panels is constrained, which is expected to results price increases, it said.
Meanwhile, LCD panel suppliers are building new fabs and are increasing capacity at a blistering pace, as they attempt to capitalize on new opportunities in the LCD-TV market and to reduce the cost of their products relative to competing plasma-display technology.
Since most of the new LCD production capacity coming on line in the second half will be devoted to the LCD-TV market, particularly for 30-inch and larger sets, the supply of panels for mainstream mobile personal computers and desktop monitors will remain tight for the next few quarters, iSuppli said.
As factories progress with their ramp-ups, unit supply is expected to increase at an accelerating rate, rising by 7.4 percent in the second quarter, 12.5 percent in the third quarter and 20 percent in the fourth quarter, iSuppli predicts.
For the whole year, global supply of large-sized LCD panels will amount to 193.1 million units with demand adding up to 184.7 million units worldwide, the research house said.
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