Shipments of LCD TVs up by almost 200%

Shipments of Taiwanese liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs, led by TPV Technology Ltd (冠捷科技), almost doubled to approximately 3.8 million units last quarter, driven by strong back-to-school demand for small-screen TVs in the North American market, researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday.

"Sustaining buying sentiment in North America has helped boost the shipments of Taiwanese manufacturers in the third quarter, shrugging off the subprime shadow," IDC said in its latest report.

The US reported its highest economic growth in one-and-a-half years in the third quarter at 3.9 percent annually, the researcher said. That growth momentum is expected to carry into the current quarter.

"Local LCD TV makers are expected to benefit from a new wave of price cuts from the world's major TV brands in order to promote TVs with 40-inch screens, or bigger, during the Christmas shopping season," IDC said.

For Taiwanese companies, the upgrade to bigger TV screens is expected to boost not only unit shipments but, more importantly their revenues this quarter, IDC said without providing a specific forecast.

Shipments by local manufacturers are forecast to grow by 40 percent quarter-on-quarter to 5.34 million units in the fourth quarter.

TPV, Proview Electronics Co (唯冠科技) and Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技) were the top three LCD TV makers by shipments in the third quarter as they grew along with their major customers, IDC said.

Proview shipments leapt 80 percent at a quarterly rate due to the robust sales of its biggest customer, Polaroid Corp, the researcher said.

Electronics maker Wistron Corp's (緯創) LCD TV shipments saw the strongest growth, 148 percent quarter-on-quarter, to 340,000 units last quarter as its major customer in the US, Westinghouse Electric Corp, saw strong sales and because it won new orders from Sony Corp, IDC said.

Wistron is ranked No.4 LCD TV maker in the nation.

In the third quarter, shipments of TVs with 19-inch and 22-inch screens saw the fastest growth, 181 percent and 135.9 percent from the second quarter respectively, compared to an overall 46 percent quarterly growth, IDC said.

Over 60 percent of the TVs made by local companies were shipped to the North American market, partly because European consumers tend to buy European brands such as Philips, IDC said.