Shipments of large-area TFT (Thin Film Transistor) LCD panels in March reached 37.9 million units, showing month-over-month growth of 29 percent, according to research from DisplaySearch. Additionally, large-area TFT LCD revenues reached $3.9 billion, up 31 percent for the same period.
February shipment results indicate that the TFT LCD industry had reached the bottom of the cycle, and March's results show some recovery, according to DisplaySearch. The figures cover notebook PC, monitor and TV LCD panels.
"March results are encouraging for panel makers as they reflect a good recovery in demand," said David Hsieh, vice president, DisplaySearch, in a statement. "Considering the current end-market demand and the low panel inventories, we expect that shipments will continue to grow in the second quarter, and we forecast that panel makers will reach 80 percent capacity utilization."
However, on a year-over-year basis, shipments were down slightly at 5 percent, while revenues declined a whopping 47 percent.
"The key challenge for panel makers is to evaluate the supply/demand balance, which will be determined by the amount of production increase and by whether the growth in demand is sustained in the second quarter of 2009," Hsieh said in a statement.
Broken out by segment, notebook panels had the highest month-over month growth at 38 percent, followed by LCD TVs at 30 percent and LCD monitors at 24 percent. However, monitor panel shipments are still lower than the same month last year. Notebook panel shipments were flat and TV panels were 14 percent higher than March 2008, DisplaySearch said.
For notebook PCs, shipments of 16:9 panels reached 2.8 million, a 24 percent share of the 11.6 million notebook panels shipped, up from 17 percent in February. In monitors, 16:9 panels reached 4.3 million units, a 28 percent share of the 15.4 million monitor panels shipped, up from 26 percent in February. In the TV panel segment, 32-inch panel shipments reached 4 million units in March, the highest monthly volume ever, according to DisplaySearch.
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