According to Omdia
More TV panels will be manufactured at Gen 10 substrate and above lines this year, according to analyst firm Omdia.
The firm expects TV panels made at Gen 10 (2880x3130mm) and Gen 10.5 (2940x3370mm) lines to account for 31.8% of the total TV panels __ including both liquid crystal displays (LCD) and OLEDs __ made in 2022.
Using larger glass substrates to cut out large panels such as those for TVs is more cost-effective for panel makers as they can cut out more units of panels with less leftover than using a smaller glass substrate. Generation refers to the size of the glass substrate with a larger number indicating a larger substrate.
Panel makers are using their Gen 8.5 (2200x2500mm) and Gen 8.6 (2260x2600mm or 2250x2620mm) more for IT products such as notebooks, monitors and tablets that are seeing high demand since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
These panels used in IT products are more profitable compared to TV panels.
Existing Gen 10.5 lines include B9 and B17 run by BOE; T6 and T7 run by CSOT; and a line at Guangzhou run by Sakai SIO, previously Sharp now under Taiwan’s Foxconn.
These lines will be used to manufacture 65-inch and 75-inch TV panels more and more, Omdia said.
Gen 8 lines were once the go-to to manufacture LCD TV panels but they will account for 48.7% of the panels manufactured at the lines __ down from 54.8% of last year.
At the same time, these Gen 8.5 and Gen 8.6 lines will make more panels for monitors: up to 24.4% of the total this year compared to 20.9% of last year.
Notebook panels will also account for 7.9% of the total panels made in these lines in 2022, a slight increase from 7.4% of last year.
Meanwhile, OLED TV panels will account for 10.6% of the total panels made at Gen 8.5 and Gen 8.6 lines this year, from last year’s 8.4%.
