Large-sized panel shipments rebounded from rock bottom with 14.4 percent MoM increase in Feb. 2012

TAIWAN: According to WitsView, Trendforce’s panel research division, the global large-sized panel shipments in Feb-12 reached 59.58 million units with an increased MoM of 14.4 percent.

Aided by postponed shipment in Jan and the employees’ returning to work in LCM, the global large-sized panel shipments surged in February. In terms of shipment growth by unit, the Korean panel makers including Samsung and LGD reached 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively, while CMI and AUO, the Taiwanese manufacturers, enjoyed the MoM increase of 30 percent and 16percent, respectively.

Overall LCD TV panel shipments in February amounted to 16.59 million units with an 8.8 percent MoM increase, while monitor panel shipments came to 1,535 units, a rising MoM of 11.4 percent. Regular notebook shipments surged by 31.7 percent with a total of 1,683 units.

As for tablet PCs, LG Display, one of the New iPad panel suppliers, has not received Apple’s verification for shipment due to quality issue. Even though Sharp’s shipment was finally verified in February, the total supply for New iPad was merely 2.71 million units, which is significantly behind Apple’s expectation. Meanwhile, netbook panel shipments were 2.55 million units with a MoM increase of 16 percent.

Jeffy Chen, WitsView research manager, indicated that the panel makers’ efforts on production conversion and the pre-production models had caused capacity loss, coupled with fewer working days due to Chinese Lunar New Year, leading panel shipments in January to hit Q1’s rock bottom. Helped by downstream vendors’ new model launches in spring, shipments in February and March are expected to rise over months. Looking ahead to large-sized panel shipments in Mar-12, a 2~3 percent MoM increase is expected.

Following earlier forecasts, WitsView indicates that the large-sized panel shipments in 1Q12 are projected to slide by 2~3 percent QoQ, meeting the off-season demand. However, panel makers’ input capacity of both new and old models has resulted in shortage for certain panel sizes, leading to the panel makers’ intention to increase panel prices. The average panel price in March might get some support by the balanced panel sufficiency in 1Q12. The key to price rebounds lies in an strong end-user demand recovery and reasonable utilization rate.

Chart 1: TFT-LCD Panel Shipment in Feb-12 (K units)Source: WitsView, Taiwan.