Global Monitor Shipment Likely to Decline 5% in Q4, 2011

Taipei, Dec. 2, 2011 (CENS)--Global monitor shipment is likely to decline 5% in the fourth quarter of this year from a quarter ago for a variety of reasons, forecast the TFT-LCD market researcher WitsView.

WitsView pointed out that global shipment of monitors by brands and contract manufacturers dropped 5.2% and 8.8%, respectively, month-on-month in October, partly because of downstream customers advancing inventory restocking in August and September, and partly because of persistently slack consumer demand in Europe caused by debt crisis and weak economy. This has signaled an alarming sign of depressions in the sector in the fourth quarter.

Another reason behind the market researcher's pessimism about the sector in the quarter is the significantly troubled shortages of hard drives, which, caused by floods in Thailand, have forced PC manufacturers worldwide to suspend part of their planned PC manufacturing. The widespread PC production suspension, in turn, will surely undermine shipments of monitors in the months to come.

Worse, WitsView furthered, monitor suppliers will also have to suffer sluggish demand from downstream customers, who, to cope with a bearish consumer market, have been increasingly conservative with inventory restocking.

Due to the negative factors mentioned above, the market researcher thus opines that global monitor shipment is likely to decline 1-5% in the fourth quarter of this year.

Worth mentioning is that some display panel suppliers have actively partnered monitor manufacturers to better secure outlets for their finished products and counter excess supply of display panels. Benefiting from the trend, Suzhou Raken Technology Ltd., for example, a joint venture between LG, a Korean display panel maker, and Amtran Technology Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese monitor producer, is very likely to see its full-year shipment of monitors sharply surge to one million units in 2011 from 300,000 units delivered a year ago.

WitsView also forecast that rankings of world's top five monitor suppliers by shipments will also be reshuffled this year, with TPV Technology Ltd. to remain the largest, and Taiwan-based Chimei Innolux Corp. to be squeezed out of the top five supplier list.