Global LCD TV shipments are expected to grow at an annual rate of 7 percent this year to 239 million units, due to strong replacement demand primarily from North America and the Asia-Pacific region, market researcher IHS DisplaySearch said in its latest report.
A better-than-expected growth of 10 percent in the third quarter last year also prompted the researchers to raise their estimate, according to the report dated on Wednesday last week.
As for last year, worldwide unit shipments of LCD TVs were also expected to have grown by 7 percent to 223 million units, DisplaySearch said. By area, shipments were expected to have grown by 16 percent as consumers continued upgrade to large-screen TVs, it said.
That would be the second year for the world’s LCD TV market to post a high single-digit annual expansion after growth stagnated in 2013, during which shipments inched up just 2 percent annually.
The average screen size of LCD TVs is expected to have risen by 5 percent to 39 inches last year from 37.5 inches in 2013, DisplaySearch TV research director Paul Gagnon said.
“LCD TV shipments from manufacturers to retailers in the third quarter were stronger than expected in several regions, but especially in North America and Asia Pacific,” he said. “Growth in these regions is driven by a new wave of replacement activity. North American consumers are replacing older flat-panel TVs, and consumers in India and other Asia-Pacific countries are replacing CRT [traditional cathode-ray tube] TVs,” he added.
The trend toward buying larger flat-panel TVs has stimulated demand for 4K LCD TVs, which are expected to see sales growth of more than 50 percent to surpass 32 million units this year, Gagnon said.
The increase in average size, combined with stronger unit growth, is fueling renewed investment in LCD panel production capacity, Gagnon said.
To cope with persistent TV panel supply constraints, Innolux Corp (群創光電), the nation’s top LCD panel maker, said it planned to double its capacity investment to about NT$40 billion on building a new 6-generation factory and expanding its 8.5-generation production line this year.
Last year, Innolux only budgeted NT$19 billion US$594 million) for new facilities and equipment.
Local rival AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) said it is also considering investing on capacity expansion.
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