Global large-sized panel shipments grew by a staggering 42.3% QoQ to 121.87 million units in 2Q09
Overall Panel Shipment Review for 2Q09
After two consecutive quarters of decline, the panel industry has finally escaped the gloom in 2Q09, global large-sized TFT-LCD panel shipments grew by a staggering 42.3% QoQ to 121.87 million units, YoY growth has also exceeded the historic high, up by 9.8%. All three main applications celebrated their double-digit QoQ growth, with outstanding shipment performance; in terms of area shipment, spurred by substantial volume growth, the aggregated area shipment reached 19.88 million square meters, an astonishing 37% QoQ growth. Therefore, in 2Q09, panel industry posted outstanding results in both unit shipments and area shipments.
The significant panel shipment growth in 2Q09 can be attributed to the gradual recovery of utilization rate to fulfill downstream clients’ demand and strong inventory pull-through. Also, on the back of a supply gap caused by component shortage (such as IC and glass substrate) in the supply chain, panel prices increased. As a result, brand vendors’ orders have almost reached full capacity, based on concerns of a supply disruption and persistent price hike. Secondly, encouraged by China’s electronic product subsidy program, small-sized TV panel shipments continued to boom, this also helped drive up shipment growth. As a result, this environment is conducive to the growth of prices and shipment volume, pushing the aggregated panel shipments in 2Q09 back to a historic high.
Table 1: TFT-LCD Panel Shipment (K units)
TV Panel Shipment
In 2Q09, global LCD TV panel shipments amounted to 33.54 million units, up by 39.5% QoQ, and 41.5% YoY. It celebrated the highest growth among all 3 applications, and set a record high. The growth of TV panel shipment was mainly driven by China’s domestic demand, thanks to the electronic product subsidy program, which stimulated the 2.5% growth of small-sized LCD TV shipment, such as those below 26W. Even though the 32W is still the mainstream size with 40.6% shipment ratio, 32W and 37W have been impacted by the growth of smaller-sized models, both fell by 1.3%; no significant changes in shipment were observed in large-sized TV of above 40W, which only added 0.2%.
Monitor Panel Shipment
2Q09 global LCD monitor panels shipment grew by 35.3% QoQ to 47.74 million units; however, the reverse was observed in YoY performance, with a decline of 7.4 %. This is because 2Q08 ended on the eve of a sharp drop in LCD monitor panel shipments, under the expectation of supply shortage, the substantial stock-up by downstream clients has led to unprecedented lows and severe losses due to price decrease. Therefore, the growth of LCD monitors in 2Q09 seemed rather pale next to the outstanding performance in 2008.
Size-wise, as panel and downstream customers continue to replace the older models with the new 16 by 9, these new models were the main ones that enjoyed the growth; they are, 15.6”W(+0.1%), 18.5”W(+5.3%), 20”W(+2.2%), 21.5”W(+2.6%), 23”W(+0.3%), and 23.6”W(+0.7%). In addition, as of 2Q09, LCD monitor panel prices swung up, but the increase was within the range that could be absorbed by brand vendors, therefore, in order to avoid losing market share, retail prices were not raised. As a result, thanks to the attractive low-cost of these monitor panels, the end-market demand of LCD monitors in 3Q09 remains undiminished.
Notebook Panel Shipment
After two quarters of weakened NB market demand and inventory adjustments, the new product launches gave 2Q09 shipments a powerful shot in the arm as expected – total NB panel shipment (including 8.9W and above) reached 40.59 million unit, up by a whopping 54.4% MoM, and a 13.9% YoY increase.
Size-wise, after their sudden rise of power in 2008, the low cost Netbooks have been expanding rapidly. Models from 7-inch and above are constantly being replaced by larger sizes. Currently, the 10.xW models have become the mainstream in the market, with 4.4% growth in 2Q09; and the market eagerly awaits the growth of 11.6W and the like. The 12.1W above notebook shipment, the models that recorded growth were 13.3W (+0.9%), 13.4W (+1%) and 15.6W (+7.8%); shipments of these models have significantly increased because these adopt the new LED backlights.
Regional TFT-LCD Panel Shipment
Looking at the market share of regional large-sized TFT-LCD panel shipments in 2Q09 – spurred by Taiwanese panel makers’ utilization ramp up, and cross-strait procurement plans between China and Taiwan, Taiwanese panel makers’ regional share increased by 2.6% compared to 1Q09, with NB panels in the lead at 4.4% growth, followed by TV panels at 2.6%, and LCD monitors up by 1.7%. Meanwhile, even though Korean makers’ market presence fell by 1.2%, it still topped the leaderboard at 52.5%; their TV and NB panels continued to benefit from the advantage of worldwide first-tier brand vendors, occupying 54.3% and 59.3% respectively. In LCD monitor panels, Korean makers were edged by the shipment rebound of Taiwanese and China panel makers, shares fell by 2.8% to 45.3%, second to Taiwanese makers’ share at 47.7%. As for Japanese and China panel makers’ regional share, Japanese makers losing 1.8% continuously, and Chinese makers adding only 0.4%.
Table 2: Regional TFT-LCD Panel Shipment (unit base)
Panel ASP
As for Q209 panel ASP by unit area, stimulated by the persistent panel price increase and output optimization, average unit price was lifted to $115, up by 1.7% compared to 1Q09. Similarly, for panel ASP by area, the average unit price increased by 3.5% QoQ to $661. Average unit price of all three main applications are: LCD TV panels at $222, QoQ growth of 0.9%; NB panels at $58, QoQ growth of 1%; and LCD monitor panels at $78, QoQ growth of 3.8%, posting the sharpest price rebound among all 3 applications.
