The prices of LCD panels used in TVs are expected to rebound next month at the earliest on stock rebuilding demand, putting an end to the prolonged downward spiral of the past year, market researcher DisplaySearch said yesterday.
Television set makers “have reduced their inventories to less than their normal levels after two quarters in digestion,” said David Hsieh (謝勤益), vice president of DisplaySearch in charge of the Great China market, on the sidelines of an annual seminar arranged by the Austin, Texas-based research house in Taipei.
“Panel makers are managing to raise prices as panel prices have plunged to below the cash cost of most manufacturers,” Hsieh said.
“Now, inventory level plays a bigger factor behind the industry’s cycles,” Hsieh said.
SIX-WEEK SUPPLY
TV makers now only have enough stocks for them to use in manufacturing for six weeks, slightly lower than the normal level of between six weeks and 10 weeks, he said.
Demand for inventory replenishment would drive up LCD TV panel prices by between 1 percent and 2 percent month-on-month next month or in June because there is no sign indicating a recovery in end demand for slim-screen TVs to fuel stronger demand for panels, Hsieh said.
The price for a mainstream 32-inch LCD panel used in TVs plunged about 29 percent to US$147 per unit in the first quarter of this year, compared with US$206 per unit in the first quarter of last year, DisplaySearch statistics showed.
POSTPONED RAMP-UP
In addition, the price rebound was likely to last to the end of this year because of decreased supply because Chinese panel makers, such as BOE Technology Group Co (京東方), might postpone their ramp-up of new capacity after the March 11 quake and tsunami suspended operations at Japanese equipment supplier Nikon Corp, he said.
The adverse impact of the natural disasters and the end of a government subsidy program on energy-saving TVs was expected to spread to the sales of LCD TVs in Japan, Hsieh said.
Shipments of LCD TVs in Japan would almost halve to 14 million units this year, from 26 million, he said.
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