Panel makers raise prices in 1HMay amid financial pressure

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2009-04-30 17:28

Taiwan--(뉴스와이어)--According to WitsView’s initial survey, the end market demand in 2Q09 remains uncertain. Still, amid the impact from the financial storm last year, the 2009 production plans in the general supply chain have been overly conservative. In addition, panel makers were forced to significantly cut back their utilization rates to reduce their cash out pressure in 4Q08. Owing to China’s demand and better-than-expected sales in the emerging markets, Europe and the US during 1Q09, the panel demand started to pick up after Jan09. Boosted by China’s demand and downstream clients’ inventory replenishments, the monitor and TV panel shipments both respectively grew by 2% QoQ. As for the large-sized NBs, the still sluggish demand resulted in NB panel shipments to tumble by 19% over 4Q08. Fortunately, the persisting inventory clearing, inventory restocking by downstream vendors and new product launches of 16:9 LED backlit NBs has helped NB panel shipments to also experience monthly increases now. With panel makers still posting big losses in 1Q09, they must try to further raise prices in 2Q09 to generate more cash in. For 1HMay, WitsView projects IT and TV panel prices to see a 2~3% rise.

The panel prices for 1H May will be released by WitsView on May 5th.

웹사이트: http://www.witsview.com