A high-level delegation representing the Chinese TV manufacturing industry yesterday said it had arranged its first visit to local LED companies and hoped to seek help from Taiwanese LED component makers to fend off growing competition from global TV brands.
In addition to the routine visits to their TV panel suppliers in Taiwan, the China Video Industry Association (中國電子視像行業協會) planned to meet officials from the nation’s major LED chip packagers and makers such as Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s top LED chipmaker, as LED TVs become increasingly popular globally.
FAST GROWTH
“LED TV will be one of the fast-growing areas in the future as industry experts foresee the trend of using power-saving LED chips to replace CCFL [cold cathode fluorescent lamps] as the backlight source for LCD TV panels,” deputy director of the association Bai Weimin (白為民) said.
“We found that the supplies of some LED components from Chinese firms have been unable to catch up with demand because of some technological barriers. And Taiwanese firms are superior in the LED industry,” Bai said.
She added that the association had visited local LED chip packager Everlight Electronics Co (億光) yesterday. Members of the association included top Chinese TV makers TCL and Haier (海爾),
The association expected LED TVs to comprise more than 30 percent of the 38 million overall units of LCD TVs sold in China this year, rather than 20 percent as it had estimated previously. Last year, LED TVs accounted for a mere 15 percent of total LCD TV sales.
COMPETITION
The fast-growing LED TV market has also meant rising competition from global TV brands as Chinese TV makers are lagging behind top global TV brands such as Samsung Electronics Co and Sony Corp in deploying the ultra-slim and energy-efficient TVs, said Locke Chang (張小彪), a flat-panel analyst with Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技).
“I believe the delegation is trying to seek a stable supply of LED components like flat panels and LED chips from Taiwanese suppliers as South Korean and Japanese component makers will prioritize their brand-name TV business for supply,” Chang said.
Separately, Bai said she was confident that Chinese TV makers would buy US$5.3 billion worth of LCD panels from the nation’s top three LCD panel suppliers — AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) — based on the memorandums of understanding signed in January.
INVENTORY
“The LCD TV market is still growing very fast, and inventories at Chinese TV makers are on the decline after [local] governments resumed bidding to buy LCD TVs to support the [government policy] of subsidizing TV purchases [in rural and urban areas],” Bai said.
This year, China is set to become the world’s largest LCD TV manufacturer by producing more than 80 million LCD TVs, up 21 percent from 66 million units last year, Bai said.
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