AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) last month reclaimed its long-lost second-place TV panel supplier ranking in China as its new LCD TV panels revived stagnant demand in a Chinese market depressed by oversupply, a local market researcher said yesterday.
The Chinese market played a key role in supporting Taiwanese panel makers’ growth during the downturn in 2008-2009, when the TV market in the US and European markets slowed. This year, local panel makers lost this support as TV growth in China turned stagnant as well.
However, starting this month, China’s six major TV brands are expected to increase orders by more than 28 percent to 4.3 million units to build inventory for the Lunar New Year holiday shopping season, after cutting orders by 19 percent last month amid inventory digestion, WitsView, an LCD research team from Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said in its latest report.
This new momentum is expected to “help to stabilize [panel] prices in the fourth quarter. And we also see some rush orders coming in,” WitsView analyst Burrell Liu (劉陳宏) said in the report.
Last month, AU Optronics outranked Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co by seizing a 23 percent share of the total panels purchased by Chinese TV makers including Hisense Electric Co (海信), TCL Corp and Skyworth Group (創維), according to the report. WitsView did not reveal the market shares of Samsung and LG Display.
Two months ago, AU Optronics ranked No. 4, with a 19 percent share, behind LG Display, Samsung and Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), WitsView said.
Chimei, retaining its top position, captured 31 percent of the Chinese market last month, up from 29 percent in the previous month, WitsView said.
“AU Optronics and Chimei have developed new sizes of LCD panels, with 39-inch and 50-inch screens for TVs.
Those products attracted lots of interest and orders from China’s main TV brands and global TV makers, creating some excitement in the dull market, Liu said in the report.
In addition to Samsung, LG Electronics Co, Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp and Panasonic Corp are using, or about to use, those 39-inch and 50-inch panels from AU Optronics and Chimei in their new TVs, Liu said.
Samsung and LG Display did not supply customers with 39-inch and 50-inch TV panels, according to WitsView. Instead, Samsung offered 43-inch and 48-inch LCD TV panels exclusively for the Chinese market, the report said.
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