After growing 11.7% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, Shipments of small and medium-sized LCD panels in Taiwan are expected to decline 1.1% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2021 and 6.9% year-on-year for the full year, according to Digitimes Research.
Shipments of small and medium-sized panels in Taiwan totaled 210 million units in the second quarter, down 9% year on year, with quarter-on-quarter growth driven by demand for feature phones and entry-level wearables.
As smartphone demand picks up, THE company is expected to shift some of its feature phone panel production to larger smartphone panels in the third quarter. That could lead to lower panel shipments from Taiwanese manufacturers in the third quarter, which are expected to fall 19.6 per cent year on year.
Digitimes Research said the forecast was based on The fact that Color Crystal was shipping all of its inventory panels to Huawei in the third quarter of 2020 before US trade sanctions began to take effect, resulting in a nearly 20 percent year-on-year decline in the third quarter of that year.
In addition, shipments of small and medium-sized tablets in Taiwan are expected to decline more than 28.9% in q3 from the previous quarter, as Amazon has shifted its focus to 10-inch plus tablets and Chinese panel maker HKC is expected to enter the 7-8 inch entry level competition.
As the smartphone LCD panel market continues to be dominated by AMOLED panels, tablets are gradually trending toward larger panels, and the panel market is facing a severe shortage of driver ics, Taiwan's small and medium size LCD panel shipments are expected to decline 6.9% year-on-year to 790 million units in 2021.
