Sharp Corp is to see 97.5 percent annual growth in TV set shipments this year, as a sufficient in-house panel supply and the efforts of new TV assembly partner Innolux Corp (群創) helped the company make further progress in regaining its past glory, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast yesterday.
With such strong growth prospects, Sharp is expected to buck the downtrend in the world LCD industry this year, TrendForce said, adding that global LCD TV shipments are forecast to contract 4.1 percent year-on-year to 210 million units this year.
Innolux, a flat panel manufacturing arm of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), resumed its TV assembly business this year in an effort to grow revenue and to minimize risk in the volatile LCD panel industry. In addition to Sharp, Miaoli-based Innolux is in talks with its panel customers to make TVs on a contract basis to reach its goal of becoming a major TV assembler within the next two years.
Sharp’s growth momentum is expected to extend into next year with TV set shipments growing 28.7 percent year-on-year to 12.3 million units, the Taipei-based market researcher said.
REGAINING GROUND
The growth will help the company shrink the lead of China’s Hisense Electric Co (海信), the world’s No. 5 TV vendor, TrendForce said, adding that Sharp looks set to slide into the No. 6 spot this year. Sharp ranked No.14 last year.
Hisense is expected to ship 14 million units of flat-screen TVs next year, up 9.4 percent from 12.8 million units this year, TrendForce forecast.
The growth is mainly to come from its acquisition of Toshiba’s television business, the researcher said.
Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc and China’s TCL Corp are to remain the world’s top three TV brands next year, TrendForce predicted.
Global LCD TV shipments are to be back on track next year with an annual growth rate of 3.9 percent to 218 million units, as price declines help boost TV sales during the holiday season, TrendForce said.
“Panel prices have tumbled more than 17 percent on average since the second quarter of this year,” TrendForce assistant research manager Jeff Yang (楊晴翔) said in the report released yesterday.
“Coupled with promotion sales during China’s annual Singles Day and Black Friday, [worldwide TV] shipments continue to rise,” Yang said.
TV brands are expected to see shipments rise through to the Lunar New Year and to further expand their growth due to global sports events such as the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup, Yang said.
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