Poor economy cut LCD shipment in October

Shipments by SIs experienced more pronounced decline compared to brands in October as their production capacity was cut by the long weekend October 1st National Holiday in China. In terms of the Q4 shipment outlook, a decrease in shipment demand is due to several factors. These include making advanced orders in Q3, the flood in Thailand, and while panel prices are expected to stabilize in Q4, there is no momentum to support a rebound as demand grows weak. Only 19W and 23.6W products will experience tight supply due to panel supply decrease. Since downstream vendors will generally remain conservative in stocking up, WitsView forecasts SIs and brand vendors to experience shipment decline from 1-5 percent in Q4.

1Q11-4Q11 LCD Monitor Top10 SIs and Brands Shipments.

Panel makers are aggressively nurturing joint venture SI makers such as Raken Technology Ltd (a joint venture by LG Group and Amtram Group) to consolidate downstream outlets and digest huge panel production capacity as feeble global economic environment puts the panel industry in long term oversupply. In such phenomenon, Raken's contracting scale has grown from 300K units last year to one million this year, with its shipment number expected to double next year. Its drastic growth against market trend makes Raken a strong contender among the LCD monitor SIs. China LCD monitor and TV SI, HKC, on the other hand, has been growing quietly but steadily and is expected to pose a total monitor shipment volume of 5.5 million to six million this year while its TV production volume is expected to reach 1.5 million to two million units. The company is surely not to be underestimated in the future, added the report.