According to TrendForce’s latest research on the display panel industry, technological upgrades, rising production cost pressure, and the gradual ramp-up of new 8.6-gen fabs are reshaping the LCD manufacturing landscape.
TrendForce’s latest research on smartphone panels reveals that shortages and rising memory prices—one of the most costly components in smartphones—are reshaping brand shipment strategies for 2026 and weakening panel demand.
On February 10th, Sharp announced plans to halt production at its K2 facility, a Gen 8 LCD plant in Kameyama (2160 x 2460 mm), and to seek a potential buyer for the site. The K2 plant has been a key pillar of Sharp’s display business, producing panels for notebooks, tablets, e-paper devices, and smartphones, and has long underpinned Sharp’s role as Apple’s third-largest IT panel supplier. It is also a critical source of oxide backplanes for e-paper applications. If output at the Kameyama K2 plant is scaled back as planned, the short-term supply of Apple’s MacBook and iPad models—as well as e-paper products—could face disruption.
TrendForce’s latest investigation indicates that with the Lunar New Year in February, China’s top three LCD TV panel makers—BOE, TCL CSOT, and HKC—are planning to suspend production at downstream module facilities for five to ten days to cut labor costs and avoid rising inventories. Front-end fabs will also reduce their output accordingly. As a result, LCD TV panel utilization rates for 1Q26 are projected to drop by 3.5 percentage points QoQ to 87.7%, leading the market towards a tighter supply-demand balance.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange has recently approved SeeYA’s IPO application. The company intends to raise CNY 2.015 billion to increase its OLEDoS display production capacity and expand its R&D center. TrendForce reports that demand for OLEDoS micro-displays, driven by near-eye devices such as AR, VR, and MR, is projected to reach 31.5 million units by 2030, with a CAGR of 81% from 2025 to 2030.