“The stock-up demand is going to peak in August as TV brands get ready for promotional events related to Black Friday sales and upcoming Chinese national holidays,” said Iris Hu, research manager of WitsView.

“In response, panel makers have raised their capacity utilization rates, and global TV panel shipments will continue to grow. Furthermore, panel supply tightened during the first half of this year. Some TV brands were unable to make sufficient panel purchases, causing their shipments to fall below expectations. In this year’s latter half, TV brands will therefore keep up their panel purchases as to achieve their annual shipment targets. On the whole, WitsView expects third-quarter TV panel shipments to increase by 8~9% compared with the second quarter.”

Looking at TV panel shipments for July, LG Display (LGD) shipped around 4.49 million units, translating to a monthly growth of 5.7%. LGD’s shipments benefited from the expanded capacity of its Gen-8.5 fab in Guangzhou, China. There was also the strong demand from TV brands pertaining to the Black Friday sales. LGD’s 55-inch and 65-inch panel shipments therefore rose 15.2% and 13.1% respectively compared with the prior month to 864,000 and 181,000 units. The monthly growth rates for both size categories were record highs for the panel maker.

Samsung Display (SDC) encountered difficulties as it transitioned to another manufacturing process during the first half of this year. The panel maker finally resolved the related issues in July and saw its monthly large-size panel shipments increased 11.5% to 4.46 million units. Shipments of 40-, 55- and 65-inch panels also registered monthly increases of over 15% respectively as TV brands continued to stock up for holiday events, refill their inventories and prepare for new product launches.

SDC will shut down its L7-1 fab at the end of this year, but before that the fab’s capacity will be fully loaded. Thus, SDC’s 40-inch panel output is expected to reach a high of 1.5~1.6 million units per month from this July to November. The L7-1 fab will then wind down production entering December and completely shut down by the end of the year. According to WitsView’s analysis, SDC’s supply of 40-inch TV panels for next year will be almost 70% lower than that of this year due to the closing of this fab.

BOE Technology (BOE) was the only one among the six major panel suppliers to post a drop in TV panel shipments in July. Due to the rising demand in the IT market, BOE has allocated more of its Gen-8.5 capacity towards IT panels at the expense of its TV panel production. Furthermore, BOE extended the base shipment period for June to improve the shipment result for that month. Hence, BOE’s TV panel shipments in July fell slightly by 1% from the prior month to 4 million units.

Innolux saw a monthly increase of 1.8% for its TV panel shipments in July, amounting to 3.49 million units. Innolux this year has to find other channels for its 23.6-inch TV panels as orders from Mexico stopped coming. Starting in the second quarter, Innolux has worked with TV brands to prop up the demand for the 23.6-inch panels and developed markets in other regions, including Southeast Asia and the emerging markets. As a result, the Taiwanese panel maker saw a massive monthly growth of 74.2% for its 23.6-inch shipments in July – a remarkable feat and the culmination of aggressive efforts to drive shipments for this size category.

China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) registered a monthly growth of 9.1% for its July TV panel shipments, totaling around 2.86 million units. The capacity expansion of one of CSOT’s Gen-8.5 fabs for this year has been ahead of schedule. This resulted in a 22.5% monthly increase in CSOT’s 55-inch panel shipments in July and expanded the panel maker’s large-size panel shipments as a whole.

AU Optronics (AUO) posted a small monthly increase of 0.8% for its July panel shipments, amounting to 2.26 million units. For several months, AUO has seen its Gen-7.5 and above fabs running at full capacity to fulfill orders from TV brands that are restocking their inventories and planning for the upcoming peak season. Despite the strong demand, AUO’s shipment growth has been constrained by its limited production capacity.