Mobile phone display panel market falls 26% in January

The global shipment of mobile phone displays tumbled 26% in January from the previous month to 158 million units on the spreading coronavirus combined with seasonal factors, according to industry sources on Mar. 10.

The figure reflected a 20% on-year decline. It was compiled from the display shipment volume of 12 display makers including China’s BOE and Samsung Display.

In particular, smartphone panel shipment fell 23% on-month to 121 million. From the same period in 2019, shipment declined 6%. The panels for feature phones fell 33% to 37 million. From the same period last year, it dived 46%.

Consequently, industry sources have slashed the panel shipment estimates for the first quarter of this year by 19% to 336 million. Among them, a-Si TFT LCD panel shipment is expected to fall 23% to 124 million. Those for LTPS TFT LCD panels and AMOLED panels are to fall 12% and 23% to 122 million and 91 million.

Experts are saying the figures could suffer further if the coronavirus becomes a global pandemic.

China’s BOE was the largest supplier of mobile phone displays in January, despite the total volume slipping 32% to 30 million. It had a 21.5% market share. Its shipment for panels for smartphones and feature phones each fell 32% and 33% on-month.

Century became the second-largest, pushing out Samsung Display. Century’s panel shipment grew 51% on-month to 25 million on the back of feature phone screen sales. At 3rd place was Samsung Display shipped 25 AMOLED panels, down 23% on-month on shrinking rigid AMOLED display demand. Its market share in the global mobile phone panel sector rose slightly to 15.7%, but was still smaller than Century’s.

At 4th place was HannStar Display that shipped 13 million units, down 60% on-month. It was followed by Tianma that shipped 13 million units, down 28%. The combined market share of the top 5 display makers stood at 67.5%.

The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.