Julian Lee, assistant research manager at TrendForce, indicates that the oversupply of panels has reached a climax this year as Gen 10.5 plants begin mass production. In addition, the U.S.-China trade war destabilizes the industry and exacerbates the oversupply problem by inducing a weak demand for consumer electronics.

As panel prices drop below cash costs, panel makers respond by massively scaling back panel production and thus impacting the demand of driver IC. The latest figures suggest that total shipment of driver IC in 2019 sits at approximately 7.76 billion units.

The injection of new production capacities in 2020, the implication for more panel shipments, and the trend towards higher resolution for large-sized display applications are offset by several factors leading to a stunted driver IC growth.

These factors include the ever-increasing popularity of narrow bezels, Gate-on-Array (GOA) integration into large-sized displays, and the corresponding decrease in Gate IC adoption. Possible factors that stimulate driver IC demand consist of growths in shipment of automotive display panels and wearable devices. TrendForce projects the 2020 growth rate of total driver IC shipment to be a mere 1.3%.