Price increases for large LCD television panels decelerated this month as Chinese TV makers consider paring down orders due to a profitability squeeze and rising inventory during the slack season, market researcher IHS Markit said yesterday.
This month, prices for 49-inch and 55-inch TV panels rose just 1 percent — or US$2 — from last month to US$180 and US$215 per unit respectively, while smaller-sized panel prices remained flat after months-long increases, it said.
The price hikes are much slower than last month’s upward adjustment of 3 percent — or US$5 — for 49-inch panels, it said.
TV makers said that skyrocketing panel prices have eroded their bottom lines and it would be unacceptable to see a further price uptrend, the researcher said.
“Just recently, some leading Chinese TVs were forced to cut panel orders for the first quarter as TV set inventories rose,” IHS Markit said.
One Chinese TV maker said it would consider trimming panel orders if prices continued to rise, given a slight increase in its stockpile of some TV panels, including 40-inch, 43-inch, 49-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch models, it said.
It will be an uphill struggle for panel suppliers to keep raising prices during negotiations with some Chinese TV makers later this quarter, given that inventory has become an issue for some vendors from this month, IHS Markit said.
Overall, panel prices are expected to rise only slightly later this quarter, as demand for smaller sizes, such as 32-inch, 40-inch and 43-inch panels, start weakening, it said.
Meanwhile, global TV makers are reporting an overall balanced-to-tight panel supply for the current quarter, it said.
Sharp’s decision to stop supplying panels to Samsung Electronics Co and China’s Hisense Electric Co (海信), as well as near-future snap panel price hikes are becoming critical factors that will tilt the global supply-and-demand balance for panels this year, IHS Markit said.
The Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK, 產業經濟與趨勢研究中心) yesterday said that Sharp’s move could adversely impact the world’s LCD panel industry if its output turned out to be inventory, and its impact could be seen starting at the end of this quarter.
This year is expected to be stable and healthy for the LCD panel industry, IEK analyst James Lin (林澤民) told reporters.
“Demand for larger TVs is growing at a faster pace this year, which is a key factor causing short supply,” Lin said on the sidelines of an event arranged by the Hsinchu-based researcher.
“This year, TV screen sizes are expected to increase by 2 inches, faster than the annual growth of 1 inch over the past few years.”
That will help boost demand by about 10 percent this year, while LCD panel capacity is to grow at a slower pace of 6 to 8 percent year-on-year, Lin said.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS