Chasing Korean Companies Closely
Although the global display panel market remains stagnant, Chinese companies continue to grow rapidly, increasing their market share significantly. They have already taken first place in terms of shipments and are chasing Korean producers closely in terms of sales.
According to global market research firm IHS Markit, global sales of large display panels totaled US$14.49 billion in the first quarter of this year, down 8.1 percent from the same period last year (US$15.77 billion). Shipments also dropped to 108.88 million units from 183.9 million units a year ago.
In the meantime, Chinese companies equipped with the 10.5- and 11-generation large liquid crystal display (LCD) lines, continued to grow. In the first quarter of this year, Chinese panel makers supplied 67.99 million panels, a 12.5 percent increase over the same period last year. This increased their market share from 33.0 percent to 37.2 percent over the same period and widened the gap with Korean companies.
In comparison, the share of Taiwanese (33.4 percent to 32.1 percent), Korean (27.9 percent to 26.1 percent) and Japanese (5.7 percent to 4.6 percent) companies all dropped.
In terms of sales, China alone marked an increase among major display manufacturing countries. Chinese companies’ sales totaled US$4.584 billion, up 17.7 percent. The market share of the Chinese makers was 31.6 percent, exceeding the 30 percent line for the first time. Although China is still behind Korea (US$5.41 billion, 37.4 percent) in terms of sales, it has overtaken Taiwan (US$3,770 million, 25.6 percent) and is threatening Korea.
By company, China’s BOE shipped 44.42 million units to capture 24.3 percent of the market and take first place over LG Display (34.27 million units, 18.7 percent). It has widened the gap with LG Display since the third quarter of 2017. Taiwan’s Innolux and AUO followed with 15.6 percent and 15.1 percent respectively, while Samsung Display only marked 7.3 percent.
In terms of sales, LG Display topped the list with US$3.87 billion (26.8 percent), followed by BOE with US$2.79billion (19.3 percent), AUO with US$1.85billion (12.8 percent), Innolux with US$1.77 billion (12.2 percent), and Samsung Display with US$1.53 billion (10.6 percent). The market share gap between LG Display and BOE was 16.6 percentage points in the first quarter of 2017, but it was narrowed down to 7.5 percentage points in the first quarter of this year.
IHS Markit forecast that Chinese makers’ global market share will continue to increase as they are ramping up LCD production at their 10.5-generation production lines.