Large-size TV panel shipments set for flat growth in 2019
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 03 January 2019

Research from WitsView has revealed that shipments of large-size panels reached 804.06 million pieces in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 2.5% but this increase is set to be just 1% over the coming year.

The specialist display analyst also found that among all the large-size display panel applications, only tablet panel recorded decreasing shipments last year, while other categories registered noticeable growth. The segment of TV panel was driven by new production capacity in the industry and special deal projects.

WitsView noted that TV makers have been making Ultra HD a standard feature for large-size TV panel products and narrowing the price gap between and UHD and full HD products in recent years, boosting the penetration rate of UHD models to 39% in 2018.

Looking ahead to 2019, the analyst forecast that two gen 10.5 fabs will focus on producing 65-inch and 75-inch panels, while gen 8.5 fab will shift to production of 55-inch ones in order to consume the capacity. At the same time, it believes that the production volume of 32-inch panels will be cut with the adjustments in product mixes driving the penetration rate of UHD models up to 50%.

In what would be a tipping point for the industry, WitsView predicts that most of 55-inch or larger products will feature UHD. For 50-inch models, the penetration rate of UHD models has reached 88% this year after the gen 8.6 fab adopted economic cut. In 2019, the rate will continue to grow and 96% of 50-inch TV panels would feature UHD if the capacity expansion is completed.

“Looking ahead to 2019, shipments of large-size panels are expected to reach 811.77 million pieces, an annual grow of 1%, driven by specs upgrades,” revealed WitsView research manager Iris Hu. “Three new fabs will enter the operation this year, with a focus on producing large-size TV panels. Thus, TV panel shipments are expected to reach 285.98 million, an annual growth of 1%. This will mark the third consecutive years for TV panel shipments to grow.”