LG Display Tops LCD Market for 4th Year

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's panel giant LG Display Co. led the global market for large-sized liquid crystal displays (LCD) for the fourth consecutive year in 2013, market research data showed Tuesday.

LG Display accounted for 26.7 percent of the world's 9.1-inch-and-above LCD market last year by shipping 186.6 million units, according to the data compiled by DisplaySearch.

While LG maintained its No. 1 spot for the 17th consecutive quarter since the October-December period of 2009, the latest figure marked a slight drop from the 28.8 percent tallied in 2012, when the company shipped 218 million units.

Samsung Display Co., an affiliate of South Korea's No. 1 conglomerate Samsung Group, took up 20.2 percent over the cited period, trailed by Taiwanese players Chimei Innolux Corp. and AU Optronics Corp. with 17.8 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively.

China's BOE Technology Group Co. and Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. accounted for 6.6 percent and 3.1 percent, and Japan's Sharp Corp. held a comparable figure of 2.8 percent.

South Korean companies accounted for 47 percent of the market last year, falling below the psychologically significant level of 50 percent. The figure came to 51.9 percent in 2011 and 50.9 percent in 2012.

Chinese players, in contrast, extended their market presence by taking up 12.8 percent in 2013, up 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Taiwanese and Japanese firms also improved their market shares to 35.9 percent and 4.3 percent.

The combined global shipment of large-sized LCD panels came to 698.1 million units in 2013, down 7.8 percent from a year earlier, a fall in demand that market watchers say reflects weak sales of traditional TVs and personal computers amid soaring popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs around the world.