Taiwanese slim-screen television manufacturers are expected to post solid growth in the second half of the year as falling prices are likely to spur demand ahead of the Christmas shopping spree, a local research house said yesterday.
This would reverse the weaker-than-expected TV sales during the World Cup soccer games in the world's biggest TV market, Europe, which resulted in an inventory buildup at TV channels and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers.
"TV vendors may increase orders to local manufacturers in the third quarter to cope with Christmas demand after inventories and prices have leveled off," Maxwell Chang (
With orders recovering, local TV makers, which supply almost 25 percent of the world's LCD TV market, would more than double their shipments to 6.39 million during the July-December period, compared with 3.04 million units a year earlier, Chang said.
Taiwan's top LCD TV manufacturer, TPV Technology Ltd (
For the full year, Taiwanese LCD TV makers would ship a total of 10.25 million units, Chang said.
He also forecast that global LCD TV sales would jump to 42 million units this year from 8 million last year.
In addition to seasonal demand, Chang said that a significant price drop would boost demand. He expected the price for a mainstream 32-inch LCD TV to fall further to approach the sweet spot of US$1,000 by the end of the year.
TV prices are falling mainly because of the drop in flat panel prices, with the price of a 32-inch panel plunging 25 percent from January to US$435 now, he said.
Flat panel prices are expected to continue falling through the second half of this month given high inventories, said the Chinese-language Cnyes.com yesterday, citing the latest market report by the Taipei-based WitsView Technology Corp (聯景科技).
The prices of screens used in TVs would fall 3.7 percent to 5.7 percent on average, with the price of a 32-inch panel dropping US$25 to US$410 and that of a 37-inch screen declining US$25 to US$610, the WitsView report said.
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