As Samsung Display Co. (SDC) buckles under the pressure of oversupply and pandemic-induced operating difficulties, the company has made the decision to exit the LCD panel manufacturing business. According to the latest investigations by the WitsView research division of TrendForce, the rapid decline of Korean manufacturers’ large-size panel glass capacity by area in 2020 is projected to result in a drop in market share from 28.4% in 2019 to 20.4% this year. The production capacity of Chinese panel manufacturers is expected to continue expanding in 2021. This growth, combined with the capacity shortfall from SDC’s discontinued LCD manufacturing, is expected to lead to Korean panel manufacturers’ large-size panel capacity by area to drop below 10% market share.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to accelerate and cause damage to the global economy and consumers’ purchasing power, TrendForce has compiled its latest report on the statuses of key electronics component and downstream industries, with data last updated on March 26, 2020. The report provides a deep dive into the pandemic’s influences on several high-tech industries.
According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, its latest TV research report shows that the threat of looming China-US trade war tariff covered the year 2019. Besides, consumers' habits of using TVs were changed, so demand was indirectly reduced. Fortunately, brands' promotional campaigns during Black Friday and November 11 were helped by massive fall of TV panel prices in 4Q19. Thus, the TV set shipment only slightly declined by 0.8% YoY in 2019, reaching 217.8 million units.
According to the latest investigations by the DRAMeXchange research division of TrendForce, the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in considerably weakened shipment for most end products in 1Q20. However, the major NAND Flash suppliers already scaled back their CAPEX for this year, and the total bit output of the NAND Flash industry is expected to grow by only about 30% YoY in 2020, resulting in a 5% QoQ increase in NAND Flash ASP for the 1Q20 period despite the headwinds of the off-season.
According to the latest investigations by the WitsView research division of TrendForce, despite the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, February TV panel shipments were propped up by rising panel ASPs and panel manufacturers’ existing stock. Monthly TV panel shipment decreased by 3.5% MoM in February, reaching 20.073 million units. This figure is a 10.2% decline from the shipment target set in 2019 but remains higher than previously projected decline of 18%.