Taiwanese liquid-crystal-display (LCD) television makers, including Wistron Corp (緯創), could see a 27 percent increase in shipments next year amid growing demand for slim-screen TVs, mainly from emerging markets such as China and the Middle East, a Taipei-based research house said.
Globally, LCD TV shipments could rise 25 percent to 126 million units next year from 101 million this year as falling TV prices spur demand, Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業) forecast in its latest report.
Flat-panel TV prices could drop by between 15 percent and 20 percent next year, it said.
“The driving force will mainly come from rising demand in emerging markets such as China, which has a low LCD TV penetration rate of 30 percent,” Topology LCD TV analyst Maxwell Cheng (張乘維) said.
Annual shipment growth in emerging markets is expected to reach 42 percent next year, Topology said.
“We believe the economic slowdown may have a relatively milder impact on LCD TV sales compared with other sectors,” Cheng said.
Topology originally projected that LCD TV shipments could grow to 130 million next year, 3 percent higher than its latest forecast.
Benefiting from the growing replacement demand for flat-panel TVs, Taiwanese manufacturers that supply TVs to other companies could ship 25.9 million units next year, up 27 percent from the 20.44 million units estimated for this year, Topology said.
The forecast annual growth rate is slower than the 36 percent growth Topology estimated for this year.
“Taiwanese companies may see a pullback in orders as most of their customers are second-tier TV brands, which are losing market share in the price war triggered by big brands such as Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Co,” Cheng said.
Some local companies such as Amtran Technology Co Ltd (瑞軒科技) may see their orders cut because of the intensifying price war, Cheng said.
Amtran makes flat-panel TVs for the US’ third-largest TV vendor, Vizio Inc.
“We expect Amtran’s LCD TV shipments to hold steady at this year’s level, as Vizio could lose market share to bigger rivals,” Cheng said.
In September, Amtran projected that LCD TV shipments would grow 30 percent to 5.2 million units next year, compared with the 4 million units estimated for this year.
South Korean TV vendors, including LG Electronics Inc, may not farm out as much production to local TV manufacturers as expected, Cheng said.
Amtran shares rose 1.13 percent to NT$9.82 yesterday. Wistron was down 2.76 percent to NT$28.2 and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest notebook computer maker and also a LCD TV maker, dropped 0.4 percent to NT$24.95.
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