LG Electronics Inc said the company aims to increase shipments of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs by about 47 percent next year, driven by demand from emerging markets.
LG expects to sell 25 million LCD TVs next year, compared with about 17 million sets this year, Simon Kang, the head of LG’s home-entertainment division, said in Seoul before the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Shipments of LG’s plasma TVs will probably rise 33 percent to 4 million, Kang said.
LG follows industry leader Samsung Electronics Co in aiming to exceed the industry’s shipment growth next year.
Global LCD TV sales will rise 17 percent to 149 million sets next year, Texas-based research firm DisplaySearch said in a June 17 report. Samsung said on Friday that its shipment growth will be higher than that of the market for the period.
“Developing markets will probably have a growth rate of more than double-digits while developed countries will grow” by between 2 percent and 3 percent next year, Kang said. “There was a lot of concern at the end of last year, but things have been better than expected and we think this trend may continue.”
DisplaySearch in June raised its LCD TV industry sales forecast for this year to US$76 billion from US$66 billion and boosted the full-year LCD TV shipment estimate, citing demand from China and as more consumers replace their bulkier glass-tube sets.
LG overtook Sony Corp as the second-biggest LCD TV maker in the second quarter, helped by increased shipments to emerging markets, California-based researcher iSuppli Corp said on Thursday. Sony fell to the fourth behind Sharp Corp during the period, iSuppli said.
LG reiterated its plans to sell about 400,000 LCD TVs using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), as screen backlights instead of conventional fluorescent lights this year.
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