The strong quake that rattled southern Taiwan last week would help ease mounting price pressure faced by liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel makers as a brief disruption of production lines could offset a looming price downturn during the conventionally slack second quarter, market researcher DisplaySearch forecast.
The Austin, Texas-based researcher made the comments after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit Kaohsiung last Thursday.
The region is a major manufacturing base for some of the nation’s major electronic component makers, including Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, and PC monitor panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶).
“While it is too early to gauge the impact of supply and pricing of TFT LCD panels, we can assume that any downward pressure on panel pricing has been eliminated. In fact, there are some indications that there will be another panel price increase in March due to the earthquake’s impact on the supply chain,” DisplaySearch analyst Shawn Lee (李昕霖) said on the company’s Web site.
Chi Mei, which has Tainan as its biggest manufacturing center and operates a 8-generation plant in Kaohsiung, briefly halted all of its factories for checks.
Last time, Chi Mei took two or three days to resume operation at all plants, Lee said.
HannStar also shut down its fifth-generation plant in Tainan temporarily and the panelmaker took three to five days to restart its plant after the last earthquake, Lee said.
“The demand growth of larger sizes is slowing, and this creates some price pressure. However, due to the [latest] earthquake’s impact on the supply chain, the possible downward pressure on panel pricing has been eliminated for the time being,” DisplaySearch said in a report issued on Friday.
Prices for most LCD TV panels are expected to be flat in the first half of this month, compared to two weeks ago, the latest price report issued by DisplaySearch showed.
A mainstay 32-inch TV panel was expected to be priced at US$208 per unit, the report said.
Prices for panels used in LCD monitors are expected to extend their uptrend on concerns about supply constraints, DisplaySearch said. Panelmakers are expected to raise prices by US$3 to US$5 per unit this month partly because of a ripple effect from the quake, it said.
The price for a mainstream 19-inch LCD PC monitor might rise by US$2 to US$85 per unit in the first half of this month from two weeks earlier, DisplaySearch said.
Prices for notebook computer panels are also expected to rise.
“With the latest earthquake in Taiwan, the atmosphere seems to have changed a little. We expect the notebook panel price this month could increase in the second half if the impact on panel makers is higher than expected,” the researcher said.
A Taipei-based research firm, WitsView, predicted that prices for monitor and notebook computers would go up by 1 percent or 2 percent in the first half of this month, compared to the second half of last month.
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