TrendForce’s recent research indicates that as major international NAND Flash producers reduce or halt MLC NAND Flash output and redirect their capital and R&D investments toward advanced process tech, the worldwide MLC NAND Flash capacity is expected to decrease by 41.7% YOY in 2026, leading to increased supply-demand discrepancies.
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.
Conventional DRAM contract prices in 1Q26 are forecast to rise 55–60% QoQ, while NAND Flash prices are expected to increase 33–38% QoQ The DRAM supply-demand gap continues to widen as U.S.-based CSPs lock in capacity, forcing other buyers to accept higher prices; server DRAM prices are projected to surge by more than 60% QoQ NAND Flash demand is increasingly polarized between consumer and AI applications, with enterprise SSDs becoming the largest segment; client SSD prices are forecast to rise by over 40%
TCL Technology recently announced that its subsidiary TCL CSOT had successfully acquired an 80% equity stake—along with creditor rights—in Prima. This transaction marks TCL CSOT’s formal entry into the LED chip segment. It represents a critical step toward completing a vertically integrated supply chain spanning from LED chips to Mini LED video wall applications.
2026 global notebook shipments revised down to a 5.4% YoY decline, with downside risk expanding to a 10.1% contraction Apple and Lenovo are better positioned to stabilize shipments thanks to supply-chain strength, product mix, and pricing strategies Notebook LCD panel shipments to weaken in 2026; OLED panel growth expected to slow
