Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, saw its Chinese market share rise to more than 29 percent last month from 27 percent in May as Chinese TV makers increased orders, bucking the Chinese TV market’s broader downtrend, market researcher Displaybank said yesterday.
Demand from China’s major TV brands is expected to be lackluster during China’s next shopping holiday in the first week of October and a recent rebound in panel prices could slow Chinese TV makers’ inventory buildup, the Seoul-based research house said.
Almost all of China’s top-six TV makers, including Haier Co (海爾) and TCL Group Co, bought more panels from Chimei last month, which helped boost Chimei’s LCD TV panel shipments in China by 3.7 percent month-on-month, Displaybank said in a report released yesterday. No detailed shipment figures for Chimei was available at the time of going to press.
Biggest supplier
Reflecting on market share, Displaybank’s statistics showed that Chimei’s 29.3 percent market share of total LCD TV panels sold in China last month outranked rival LG Display Co and made the Taiwanese company the biggest LCD TV panel supplier there. LG Display saw its market share drop to 25.9 percent last month from 27 percent in May, the researcher’s data showed.
Overall, Chinese TV makers’ purchases of LCD panels dropped 5 percent to 3.4 million units last month, from 3.6 million units the previous month. This ended three consecutive months of growth since February, the researcher said.
Changhong Electric Co (長虹) had the biggest reduction in orders last month, down 18.6 percent month-on-month to 500,000 units, the researcher said.
The Chinese firm is one of AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) customers and has formed a TV module venture with AU Optronics in Sichuan Province.
AU Optronics, the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, also operates TV module plants with Haier and TCL in China.
Haier buys more
By contrast, Haier purchased nearly 32 percent more TV panels last month than the previous month, according to Displaybank’s figures.
Collectively, the big four — Chimei, LG Display, Samsung Electronics Co and AU Optronics — accounted for 94.7 percent of LCD TV panel supplies in China last month.
This meant Samsung and AUO together held less than 40 percent share of that market for the month, the researcher’s data showed.
Chimei’s shares dropped 0.29 percent to NT$17.1, while those of AU Optronics advanced 1.43 percent to NT$17.7 yesterday.
The benchmark TAIEX jumped 1.28 percent.
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