Analyst: New size TV panel shipments stay high

According to WitsView, TrendForce Corp.'s panel research arm, the December shipment of large-sized panels has reached 57.06 million units with MoM regression of 2.3 percent and YoY regression of 8.7 percent. These include the 39in and 50in sizes that are forecasted to go as high as one million units shipped in 1Q12, the research unit added.

Along with the hot season stock preparations among downstream customers coming to an end, overall market demands for panels of all kinds of applications have slowed down. In early December, LCD TV panel shipment in China market has supported by a small portion of demand of stocking preparation for Lunar New Year while reaching 15.81 million units with MoM regression of 15.6 percent. The shipment of monitor panel has reached 16.07 million units with MoM growth of 0.9 percent.

Shipment of notebook panel has reached 14.86 million units with MoM regression of 10.9 percent. As for tablets, the panel supply for Apple iPad3 remains limited due to continuous production yield issue. However, the demand for knockoff tablets in southern China remains strong leading to overall tablet panel shipment reaching 8.01 million units with MoM growth of 61.9 percent. The shipment of netbook panel has come to 2.3 million units with MoM growth of 11.2 percent.

The research manager of WitsView, Jeffy Chen, has indicated that, looking ahead to the shipment of large-sized panel in January this year, the shipment momentum will be suppressed by the lack of specific stocking preparation demand in the market and the reduced working days due to Chinese Lunar New Year Holidays. As such, a MoM regression of 5-6 percent is expected. In response to this impact on shipment and as the preparation in advance for the February shipment, panel makers have maintained their production utilization rates at the same level as Q4 last year, or even further increased the production utilization rate as the strategic stocking of cell.

However, WitsView has predicted that the demands for regular notebook, monitor and LCD TV panels in Q1 will drop by 3-4 percent compared to Q4 last year. During this period with slow market demand, lifted utilization rate based on any reason at the supply side may lead to the risk of increase panel inventory, while the original expectation of panel price bouncing back in Q1 will take the blow.