China may replace North America as the world’s biggest LCD TV market as early as this year, as TV set makers are betting on China’s V-shaped economic recovery to increase demand, market researcher DisplaySearch said yesterday.
The Texas-based researcher yesterday reiterated its optimism about China’s flat-panel TV market, saying it is seeing TV makers increase panel orders again ahead of the Labor Day shopping season.
That also indicated that Chinese TV set makers have rapidly reduced excess inventories stemming from weaker-than-expected TV sales during the Lunar New Year holidays, and the TV business appears back on track DisplaySearch said.
Even more encouraging are the aggressive shipment targets set by Chinese TV set makers including Hisense Group (海信) and Skyworth Group (創維), as well as global TV makers like Samsung Electronics Co and Sharp Corp, Zhang Bing (張兵), a research director of DisplaySearch’s China market research, said during the annual flat-panel display forum in Taipei.
They aim to ship a total of 51 million units of LCD TVs this year, Zhang said.
“I was surprised about the figure at first sight. The [targets] show that they are very optimistic about the Chinese market this year,” Zhang said.
This optimism could allow DisplaySearch to raise its shipments of LCD TV shipments in China from 39.2 million units to around 45 million units this year, surpassing North America’s 41.5 million units, Zhang said.
That meant that China would surpass North America and become the world’s top LCD TV market this year, a year earlier than DisplaySearch had projected, Zhang said.
The bullish outlook is mostly based on China’s strong economic growth, rising personal income, urbanization, the Shanghai Expo and more government subsidies for the purchase of home appliances, especially TV sets, Zhang said.
“In China, TV shipment growth has generally matched economic growth,” Chang said.
China’s GDP is expected to grow by 10 percent this year, Standard Chartered Plc predicted.
Eyeing the massive LCD TV demand, China is also becoming the world’s LCD TV workshop, the researcher said. This year, nearly half, or 82.8 million units, of overall 180 million LCD TVs around the world, are expected to be made in China, DisplaySearch’s data shows.
LCD panel makers also allocated most of their panel module assembly lines to China.
Yesterday, Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan’s biggest LCD panel supplier, said it planned to invest an additional US$33 million in an LCD panel assembling subsidiary in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s sales of flat panels to China are expected to rise 56 percent this year compared with last year, according to the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會).
Chinese buyers have so far signed contracts worth US$5.3 billion for this year, compared with actual purchases of US$3.4 billion last year, TAITRA said.
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