LCD TV panel prices are expected to rise by up to US$5 per unit next month on inventory restocking primarily from China before the Labor Day shopping season, boding well for panel makers that have suffered deep losses from price erosion, a market researcher said yesterday.
DisplaySearch said the latest data re-enforced its view that inventory replenishment rather than a recovery in end demand would give a boost to panel prices after prices plunged to below the cash cost of most panel manufacturers.
“Chinese TV brands who are running at normal-to-lower inventory levels now intend to restock panels for May Days sales promotions,” the Austin, Texas-based researcher said in the report. “Many TV brands still have aggressive business plans for the year, so TV makers will gradually increase demand from now.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Based on guidance from panel makers, prices for LCD TV panels, including large 40-inch and 42-inch models, which suffered the brunt of the last price downtrend, would rebound by US$3 to US$5 per unit next month from this month, according to the report.
“We maintain our view that LG Display should benefit as panel prices reach an inflection point,” Citigroup Global Markets analyst Nam Song-hyun said in a research note yesterday.
Last week, David Hsieh (謝勤益), vice president of DisplaySearch in charge of the Greater China market, said TV panel prices would rise this quarter and extend into the third quarter with a monthly increase of up to 2 percent.
Prices for most flat panels for TVs stabilized in the second half of this month from two weeks ago, DisplaySearch said.
A 32-inch TV panel is selling at US$147 per unit, a decline of 29 percent from US$206 per unit in the first quarter of last year.
Prices for LCD panels used in PC monitors increased 1 to 2 percent in the second half of this month from the first half as monitor manufacturers increased inventory, DisplaySearch’s report showed.
Prices for mainstream 19-inch monitor panels rose 2 percent to US$61 per unit, it said.
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