Mainland shipments of panels have increased significantly

The LCD panel market in mainland China is being completely controlled by the Big Four of South Korea and Taiwan.

In May of this year, due to the unsatisfactory market growth, panel purchases of the top 8 color TV manufacturers in China fell by 3%, shipments of panel makers such as Samsung and AUO fell sharply, and BOE achieved a significant increase in reverse market, its LCD The shipments of TV panels have surpassed Samsung, AUO and LGD in the month to become the second largest in the industry.

At the same time, Huaxing Optoelectronics announced that it has accumulated more than 1.3 million panel shipments since October last year. These panels are almost entirely internalized by TCL Multimedia, and TCL Multimedia has reduced its purchases of panel makers in Samsung and Taiwan.

Continental Panel Leap Forward

According to information provided by market research agency NPD DisplaySearch, shipments of Chi Mei and LGD stagnated in April this year, Samsung and AUO also showed 11% and 5% decline respectively, and BOE LCD panel shipments showed a 45% contrarian increase. , Its Hefei 6th generation line and Beijing 8th generation TV panel shipments have reached 800,000.

Zhang Bing, Marketing Director of DisplaySearch in China, told the reporter that Huaxing Optoelectronics' current LCD panel shipments are all 32-inch, while BOE is mainly 32-inch and 37-inch. In April, the shipments of the two companies increased significantly, in addition to LCD. In addition to the reasons for the upward adjustment of import tariffs on panels, the increase in its own product yield is also related to market expansion.

The reporters went to the domestic mainstream TV companies for verification, and most of the interviewees expressed their suspicions. Due to consumers' concerns about the quality of domestic LCD panels, even more LCD TV makers are squaring even if they purchase domestic LCD panels. Only Yang Dongwen, president of Skyworth Group, revealed that “we started purchasing BOE and China Star Optronics panels in April, but the proportion is very low. Our largest panel suppliers are still LGD and Chi Mei.”

This reporter learned that almost all domestic LCD TV manufacturers, as well as Samsung, LG, Lenovo, etc., have purchased LCD panels from BOE. The main reason is that the price of LCD panels has been raised since March of this year, and since April, tariff increases have led to rising prices. Price, let TV manufacturers have to consider the lower prices of the local panel.

An executive at a color TV maker stated that “although there is only a difference of around US$3, the growth prospects of the industry are not optimistic. It is very necessary to complement the price war in the second half of the year with domestic panels with lower purchase prices.”

According to the reporter's understanding, taking into account the European Cup and London Olympics, as well as holiday promotions for May Day and Dragon Boat Festival, domestic TV manufacturers actively stocked in April and were forced to accept panel prices of 3-5 US dollars. However, the increase in domestic TV sales in May was only 5%, which caused the average inventory of color TV manufacturers to rise to 6-7 weeks. Therefore, color TV manufacturers’ panel purchases tend to favor BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics, with the exception of LGD's flat shipments. The proportion of panel shipments from Chi Mei, AUO and Samsung continued to decline.

Unbalanced product structure

Although shipments have improved, the single product structure has left the future growth prospects for the mainland panel still unfavorable.

Zhang Bing told this reporter that although the mainland generation panel generation line has successively completed the ramp-up period to achieve large-scale mass production, compared with panel makers in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, there is still a gap of several years between technology and product structure.

The reporter learned that although shipments of domestic LCD TV panels have exceeded 20% in May, they are mainly low-end standard-definition and high-definition 32-inch LCD panels. These LCD panels cannot achieve full HD (1920×1080). Mainly for the CCFL backlight module support, but not the fastest growing 3D panel technology this year.

Zhang Bing said, “The mainland’s panels are now looting only the market for entry-level small- and medium-size LCD panels. This market was dominated by Chi Mei, AUO, and Hua Ying in the Taiwan region, so BOE and China Star Optoelectronics have increased their shipments. Mainland China color TV manufacturers will reduce the purchase of Taiwanese panel."

It is worth noting that the investment in LCD panels in mainland China continues. In June, the Xinyi Optoelectronics company of the Hefei SASAC invested RMB 27.5 billion, and the Hefei 8.5 Generation, a 10% stake in BOE Technology, was formally approved and commenced, plus May. The start of the Samsung 8.5 Suzhou line and Guangzhou LGD line, the 2014 domestic LCD panel surplus will appear, especially in the 32-inch, 42-inch, such as the size of the conventional field.

Zhang Bing said, "The panel of these conventional technologies is the Red Sea of ​​the panel market. In the future, this competition is mainly the competition of domestic panel companies and their counterparts in Taiwan. Sharp, Samsung, and LGD rely on unique differential technologies to develop the mid-to-high end market. , The panel price of the same size may be 20%-30% higher than that of peers, so as to obtain higher profits."

This reporter learned that Sharp's unique IGZO metal oxide technology, Samsung's LTPS low-temperature polysilicon technology, and LGD's IPS hard screen technology are all promoting differential competition in LCD panel technology, while Taiwan and mainland panel makers are in these new technology areas. It is still blank, and it is difficult to surpass it in the short term.