COVID-19 has hit global sales of televisions and smart phones, reducing the demand for related panels. Omdia estimates that global shipments of large, medium and small panels will decline by 11.1% this year, falling to 3.2 billion from 3.6 billion last ye
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COVID-19 has hit global sales of televisions and smart phones, reducing the demand for related panels. Omdia estimates that global shipments of large, medium and small panels will decline by 11.1% this year, falling to 3.2 billion from 3.6 billion last year, for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
Ricky Park, director of Omdia display industry research, said that the COVID-19 epidemic has spread around the world, government roads have been closed management, stores have been closed, resulting in a sharp decline in terminal consumption. Televisions and smart phones, in particular, are the most affected because most sales rely on brick-and-mortar stores, with falling sales of the two major consumer electronics and falling demand for panels. But after a sharp decline in demand this year, demand is expected to rebound sharply in the future, with panel shipments growing by 9.1% in 2021, a 10-year high.
In terms of apps, TV and smartphone sales have been the most affected this year, with Omdia forecasting a 9.5 per cent decline in TV shipments and about a 10 per cent decline in smartphone shipments. By contrast, demand for IT products is relatively stable, with demand for IT products increasing recently due to work at home and online learning. Shipments of monitors are expected to decline only slightly by 1.9 per cent this year, while shipments of laptops are expected to decline by about 5.8 per cent.
However, the new panel production capacity this year is mainly 10.5 generation factories, and the increase in oversized panel shipments still leads to a slight increase of 1.8% in the panel shipping area. High-end panels such as flexible, folding panels, as well as ultra-narrow borders, or even frameless panels, shipments maintain growth.
A major focus of the display industry this year is the withdrawal of South Korean panel factories from the LCD panel market. South Korean panel factories will gradually close their 7.5G and 8.5G panel production lines this year, reducing shipments of small and medium-sized TV panels. Most of the new capacity is more than 65 inches of oversized panels, which will increase the shipping area this year.
South Korean panel factory shifted its focus to AMOLED panels, while China also has new production capacity of AMOLED panels. Omdia estimates that shipments of AMOLED panels will still maintain high growth this year. It is estimated that shipments of OLED TV panels this year will increase by 35.9% compared with last year, while shipments of AMOLED mobile phone panels will also have a growth rate of about 9%. With the change of production capacity structure, the development trend of display industry to large size and high-level technology is accelerating.
