According to WitsView, the display division of the global intelligence provider TrendForce, the 2013 global LCD TV shipment declines 1.7% to 203.1 million units due to the sluggish global economic recovery and China’s ending subsidy policy. The 2014 worldwide LCD TV shipment is likely to reach 209.1 million units, rising 3% YoY (table 1). WitsView points out five bright spots in the 2014 LCD TV market, including 1.Contineously growing TV sizes; 2.Penetration rates as high as 99-100% for LED LCD TVs and 65-70% for D-LED TVs; 3. Ultra high-resolution 4K2K TVs strongly promoted by brands; 4.Curve TVs targeting at top-class consumers; 5. Integration of smart-family system centered on smart TVs lifting the 2014 smart LCD TV penetration rate to 36%.
According to DRAMeXchange, a division of global research firm TrendForce, damages from the September 4 fire at SK Hynix’s DRAM fabrication plant in Wuxi, China caused a month-long cease in production, and global DRAM supply decreased by 10% in one single month. Therefore, commodity DRAM price trend, initially projected to fall in the second half of the year, has risen by nearly 20% since the fire. Average contract price for 4GB DRAM reached a high of US$33 in the second half of November. However, SK Hynix placed top priority on resuming operations at the Wuxi fab, immediately sending in hundreds of experts to begin the recovery process and working round the clock to decontaminate the clean room. Shortly after the incident, the memory makers replaced some of the fire-damaged equipment with machinery from its M11 fab, and newly purchased equipment has recently been moved into the Wuxi fab. Currently, SK Hynix is on track for a full recovery by mid-January. TrendForce provides the following update with the latest details regarding the recovery of the Wuxi fab:
According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, the impressive sales of smartphones and tablets have prompted DRAM manufacturers to gradually shift their focus from PC DRAM to Mobile DRAM since 2010. The proportion of DRAM revenues accounted for by the latter has risen from 14% in 2010 to about 35% this year, and is expected to show continuous growth in the next two years. Based on comparisons of the supply bit growth figures, Mobile DRAM is likely to not only replace PC DRAM as the mainstream DRAM product in 2014, but also show the largest shipment numbers within the industry.