Industry news

A total of 22.74 million LCD TV panels were shipped in November 2015, representing a 0.8% decrease compared with the prior month and a 2.2% increase on year, according to WitsView. Iris Hu, WitsView assistant research manager, stated that since branded TV vendors are going to do an annual inventory check at the end of the year, some of December's panel demand was pulled into November. Consequently, November's monthly TV panel shipments saw only a small decline.

LG Display posted the best TV panel shipments in November with 4.82 million units shipped and monthly growth of 12.8%. LG has been expanding its presence in China and is now the leader in the LCD TVpanel market on account of its close-knit relationships with its China partners. The other South Korea panel maker Samsung Display by contrast has had uneven performance through the year because it relied too much on purchase orders from in-group company Samsung Electronics. Nonetheless, Samsung Display's monthly TV panel shipments for November grew 11.4% to 4.26 million units due to October having a shorter shipment base period.

Taiwan panel maker Innolux managed to post impressive results owing to Mexico's procurement. With the last TV panel shipments to the country delivered in October, however, Innolux's performance started to slide. Shipments of its 23.6-inch TV panels in particular suffered a sharp 42% monthly decline in November. As a result of the shipment plunge in the size segment, Innolux's TV panel shipments on the whole fell 23.8% in the month, totaling just 3.58 million units. This is the first time in 2015 that Innolux saw an over 20% monthly drop in TV panel shipments, and the panel maker also lost its number three spot in TV panel shipment ranking. Major China panel maker BOE Technology replaced Innolux in November's ranking with 3.61 million units shipped and a monthly growth of 3%. BOE continues to leverage its massive capacity to expand shipments and take orders away from competitors.

AU Optronics (AUO) has seen strong sales and restocking of its 43-inch panels, and this segment's monthly shipments surpassed 600,000 units in November. The growth in 43-inch panel shipments helped raise AUO's overall TV panel shipments in November to 2.41 million units, which was a new monthly record in 2015. However, AUO was still number six in the TV panel shipment ranking, trailing behind China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT). CSOT remained in the number five spot in November even though its TV panel shipments fell slightly by 0.4% compared with the prior month. It is likely that AUO and CSOT will continue to trade places in the ranking in the near future.