Prices of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels used in computers and TV sets are expected to drop slightly by the end of this month mostly as a result of slack seasonal demand, but momentum may pick up soon as students head back to school, market researchers said in their latest reports.
LCD computer panels were expected to drop between US$3 and US$4 per unit in the second half of the month, marking the first decline since February, Austin, Texas-based researcher DisplaySearch said.
Nineteen-inch LCD panels for computer monitors were expected to fall to US$141 from US$144 two weeks ago, DisplaySearch said.
The prices of TV panels may decline between US$3 and US$6 per unit in the second half of the month, DisplaySearch’s report said.
Prices of 32-inch TV panels could drop from US$310 to US$308, while 46-inch full high-definition TV panels could fall to US$718 from US$724, the researcher said.
Despite the decline in prices, DisplaySearch said that LCD TV demand in North America was quite strong.
Shipments in the US totaled 7.5 million units in the first quarter, exceeding the researcher’s estimate by 7 percent.
WitsView, a research arm of DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) that focuses on flat panels, expected panel prices to drop between 1 percent and 2 percent. The biggest decline in the second half of this month would be in 37-inch TV panels because of weak seasonal demand.
WitsView, however, expected demand and panel prices to recover soon supported by a back-to-school shopping spree next quarter.
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the world’s third-largest LCD panel supplier, with a broad customer portfolio that includes Apple Inc, said the arrival of peak season was in sight.
“We feel the company will enter the peak season in July ... We expect this to be a typical strong season,” AU Optronics general manager Chen Lai-juh (陳來助) told reporters earlier this month.
Revenues may grow more than 25 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, which was a conventionally slow quarter, Chen said.
Matching DisplaySearch’s comments, WitsView expected panel price to decline this month.
“As June is also the time for mid-year inventory accounting and is the end of a quarter for panel makers, TV, monitor and notebook panels are still under notable price pressure,” the Taipei-based researcher said in a report released on Friday.
The report said panel makers would likely report respectable profits as average selling prices were still good.
As long as adequate orders can be secured, LCD panel makers should be able to offset the drop in prices, it said.
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