DisplaySearch Reports July LCD TV, Notebook And LCD Monitor Panel Shipments Establish Record Highs

August 29, 2007

DisplaySearch released its July LCD panel shipments results. Specifically, the firm announced that LCD TV panel shipments hit an all-time high with 7.2 million units shipped, up 6% M/M and 72% Y/Y. In addition, notebook PC panel shipments increased 7% M/M and grew an impressive 69% Y/Y to reach a new milestone of more than 10 million units in July. Although LCD monitor panel shipments have been growing in single digits on a sequential basis since April, July results established a record high of 16.1 million units, up 1% M/M and 35% Y/Y. "Despite worries that US consumer spending might decline due to weakness in the housing market and recent credit crunch, July was a strong month for the LCD industry-indicating that there is still a strong demand for LCD TVs and notebook PCs," noted Jin Kim, DisplaySearch's Director of TFT LCD Market Research. "While there were concerns of LCD TV set inventory build-up in June and July, LCD TV panel shipments continued to post strong growth in July. Furthermore, with back to school sales imminent for college students, notebook PC sales should see an increase in August through September. Overall, most producers involved in the three large-area LCD applications supply chain, including panel suppliers, OEMs and major brands, expect strong retail demand to continue for large area LCDs into the holiday shopping season," Kim added. In terms of overall large panel shipments in July, Samsung Electronics (SEC) regained the #1 position on a shipment basis with a 20.6% share in July 2007. SEC had fallen to the #3 position in June due to weak notebook panel shipments, but in July led the notebook segment, displacing LG.Philips LCD (LPL) who led for 14 consecutive months. AUO (AU Optronics) edged out LPL for the #2 position with a unit market share of 19.8%, while #3 LPL closely chased the leaders with 19.7% unit share. July LCD TV Panel Shipment Highlights and Outlook LCD TV module shipments increased 72% Y/Y in July due to strong growth in large LCD TV sizes. The most popular LCD TV module size continued to be 32", with a 36.2% shipment share in July, followed by 26" at #2 with 13.0% shipment share. Rounding out the top three was 37" with 11.3% unit share. Of note, since April 2004, 40" has led the battle against 42", but the tide has recently turned. Beginning in June 2007, the 42" share of LCD TV module shipments beat 40", 8.3% to 6.7%, respectively. In July, that gap slightly widened with 42" at 9.0%, versus 7.3% for 40". The reason is due to the success of second tier TV brands such as Vizio, who captured the #1 spot with 12.1% market share in North America in LCD TV unit shipments in Q2'07 (based on the recently announced Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report, Q3'07 Datatables). Growth was most impressive for 52" up with 2476% Y/Y growth, followed by 47" up with 1204% Y/Y growth. AUO captured the #1 position for LCD TV panel shipments, with a 22.1% share followed by LPL and Samsung with shares of 21.3% and 18.9%, respectively. AUO recorded the fastest growth at 147% Y/Y, CPT grew a significant 100% Y/Y and CMO grew 88% Y/Y. Almost all LCD TV module suppliers recorded double-digit Y/Y growth including AUO, BOE, CMO, CPT, LPL, Samsung and Sharp. The top five suppliers (AUO, LPL, Samsung, CMO and Sharp) continued to maintain a 90% shipment share, which began in December 2006. Looking forward, DisplaySearch has upgraded its annual outlook as the result of strong performance in June and July and a robust August outlook as LCDs continue to take share from competing technologies. DisplaySearch now expects LCD TV panels to rise 48% Y/Y in 2007 to 80.4M panels.

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