ban lcd panel supplier
Taiwan"s AU Optronics plans to seek an injunction in the U.S. against the import and sale of LCD panels made by South Korean rival LG Display that infringe on four of its patents, a ban that could hurt consumers because LG accounts for over a quarter of the world"s LCD panel supply.
The potential ban on LG Display (LGD) panels comes after a multifaceted U.S. court case wrapped up Friday, with the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware ruling that LGD failed to prove that AU Optronics (AUO) violated four patents related to materials and processes used in making LCD panels. The ruling ends a three and a half-year court battle initiated by LGD that included a counter-claim against LGD by AUO. AUO won the counter-claim portion of the case in a ruling announced on Feb. 16.
LGD could file further appeals or motions in its case or reach a settlement with AUO on the matter. Barring such action, an AUO victory in any kind of U.S. import injunction against LGD could hurt U.S. consumers amid strong demand for products that use LCD screens.
LGD has shipped more large-sized LCD panels, used in screens for LCD-TVs, laptop PCs and desktop monitors, than any other LCD maker in the world for the past six months, according to market researcher Displaybank.
LCD shipments have been so brisk in recent months that PC makers such as Asustek Computer have complained of some shortages, and Displaybank noted that large-sized LCD panel shipments reached an all-time high of 56.87 million panels in March.
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Recent observations by market intelligence firm TrendForce suggests that the ongoing expansion of the US semiconductor trade restrictions against China could eventually spread to the display panel industry. Agencies within the US government are taking notice of China’s certain advantages in the development of display technologies and build-up of panel production capacity.
However, the US will unlikely attempt to directly impose control over panel supply with new trade restrictions in the short term. On the other hand, the upstream portion of the supply chain, especially the sections concerning driver ICs and other related semiconductor chips, are starting to react to the tightening of the US sanctions against Chinese semiconductor companies. Furthermore, some electronics OEMs have recently been re-examining their panel supply chains to evaluate the sourcing of semiconductor components. While OEMs have yet to explicitly ban the use of panel-related chips from Chinese suppliers, they are actively developing backup plans that would seek alternative supply sources in case the US further broadens the scope its technology export rules on Chinese companies.
The continuation and strengthening of the restrictions on semiconductor trade is starting to have an effect on the supply chain related to driver ICs. TrendForce’s latest investigation finds signs of decoupling or bifurcation. Specifically, there is a divergence towards both extremes: a supply chain that totally excludes Chinese content versus a counterpart that is “de-Americanized”. Again, looking at OEMs, they have not rejected panels from certain suppliers for now, but they might start to prefer or exclude particular IC design houses that offer driver chips. As for foundries and OSAT providers, decoupling has begun in accordance with the decisions of some downstream customers. In the future, there is a distinct possibility that Chinese IC design houses, foundries and OSAT providers could be barred from participating in the supply chains for the product models targeting the US market.
Conversely, the ban on Chinese suppliers will not apply to product models targeting the Chinese market. Instead, OEMs might actually increase Chinese suppliers’ participation in order to raise the chance of a successfully entry into this region. Component suppliers such as IC design houses, too, could adopt a similar strategy so as to insert themselves into the Chinese market. To comply with and support the localization policy of the Chinese government, component suppliers could increase the portion of partners or clients from China and establish a separate local supply chain.
Presently, Chinese foundries have steadily raised their collective market share for large-sized driver ICs to around 25%. They still have much ground to catch up when compared with the 40% held by Taiwan-based foundries, but this share figure is still significant. If the US government imposes new restrictions seeking to prevent Chinese foundries from using mature semiconductor process technologies to manufacture chips such as driver ICs, then the supply chains for panels and related ICs will likely face another huge wave of capacity crunch and supply shortage.
Nevertheless, since there are no direct orders from the US government targeting panel supply and related components at this moment, TrendForce believes the decoupling process in the supply chain for driver ICs is going to be a slow and drawn-out process. In the long run, decoupling as an overarching trend will make the supply chain more fragmented and inefficient. This development, in turn, will increase the overall cost for all parties involved. Furthermore, due to the need to mitigate the potential risks resulting from the decoupling process, the supply chain could even see an elevation of minimum inventory level and a prolonging of order lead time.
AU Optronics, a Taiwanese LCD panel manufacturer, is seeking a court injunction to ban the sale of LCD panels by LG Display. This sounds like bad news for the second largest LCD panel maker in the world, but do keep in mind the official source is a press release by AUO, so it may be prudent to wait for LG to respond before drawing any final conclusions.
On December 2006, LG Display sued AUO for $690,000,000 USD for violating its patents. Since that time, AUO, the third largest maker of LCDs, fired back with their very own intellectual property claims. LG was counter-sued for infringing four AU Optronics patents related to the materials and processes used in manufacturing display panels. On February 16th, AUO won that counter claim. In the press release, the company claims it has acted to seek an injunction which will halt LG"s worldwide LCD sales, pending judicial approval.
LG produces about one quarter of all LCD panels sold worldwide. The implications of their display subsidiary being even temporarily "shutdown" are serious, but there is no word on exactly what portion of their business could be affected. Although actual LG-branded displays may not make up 25% of the market, companies like HP, Dell, Asustek and Apple depend on LG Display to supply many of their screens. This could no doubt have far-reaching effects on laptops, tablets, desktop displays, televisions, phones and more amid very high demand.
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Samsung Display will stop producing LCD panels by the end of the year. The display maker currently runs two LCD production lines in South Korea and two in China, according to Reuters. Samsung tells The Verge that the decision will accelerate the company’s move towards quantum dot displays, while ZDNetreports that its future quantum dot TVs will use OLED rather than LCD panels.
The decision comes as LCD panel prices are said to be falling worldwide. Last year, Nikkei reported that Chinese competitors are ramping up production of LCD screens, even as demand for TVs weakens globally. Samsung Display isn’t the only manufacturer to have closed down LCD production lines. LG Display announced it would be ending LCD production in South Korea by the end of the 2020 as well.
Last October Samsung Display announced a five-year 13.1 trillion won (around $10.7 billion) investment in quantum dot technology for its upcoming TVs, as it shifts production away from LCDs. However, Samsung’s existing quantum dot or QLED TVs still use LCD panels behind their quantum dot layer. Samsung is also working on developing self-emissive quantum-dot diodes, which would remove the need for a separate layer.
Samsung’s investment in OLED TVs has also been reported by The Elec. The company is no stranger to OLED technology for handhelds, but it exited the large OLED panel market half a decade ago, allowing rival LG Display to dominate ever since.
Although Samsung Display says that it will be able to continue supplying its existing LCD orders through the end of the year, there are questions about what Samsung Electronics, the largest TV manufacturer in the world, will use in its LCD TVs going forward. Samsung told The Vergethat it does not expect the shutdown to affect its LCD-based QLED TV lineup. So for the near-term, nothing changes.
One alternative is that Samsung buys its LCD panels from suppliers like TCL-owned CSOT and AUO, which already supply panels for Samsung TVs. Last year The Elec reported that Samsung could close all its South Korean LCD production lines, and make up the difference with panels bought from Chinese manufacturers like CSOT, which Samsung Display has invested in.
According to Bloomberg, which obtained court papers filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, Sharp and Samsung paid $105 million and $82.7 million, respectively, for their alleged involvement in driving up prices for LCDs sold between 1999 and 2006. Chimei Innolux paid $78 million as part of the class action lawsuit"s settlement.
"They colluded on minimum prices of panels, pricing policies on each product type, timing of price increases, and a ban on cash rebates," the country"s Fair Trade Commission said at the time. "They were aware that such action was illegal, and kept their gatherings and information secret."
The alleged price fixing impacted several markets and a host of companies, including Dell, Motorola, and Apple. In 2009, AT&T and Nokia sued Samsung, LG Display, and other panel makers, alleging that the companies artificially inflated prices on LCD panels. Dell followed with a lawsuit of its own last year, taking aim at Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, and others, accusing the firms of collusion on LCD panel pricing.
The Chinese know better and they are trying to hold on to their own by looking inwards. The American ban has been spreading to different Chinese companies in recent times. First, it was Huawei and ZTE, now it is Xiaomi. It’s only a matter of time before more Chinese companies join the ban list. To this end, Chinese companies are trying to avoid American technologies as much as possible. Presently, over 80 Chinese companies including Huawei and Xiaomi are working together to improve the Chinese chip industry. According to recent reports, Huawei and Honor will patronize Visionox (a Chinese display company) this year.
According to information from Huawei’s supply chain, Visionox will receive large AMOLED orders from Huawei and Honor this year. For Huawei, it will order over 5 million display panels. Honor n its part will place an order of over 10 million units.
Chinese OLED panel makers have been playing catch up to South Korean manufacturers like Samsung and LG. For now, Samsung is still many years ahead of Chinese manufacturers. However, we all know what happened with the LCD panel market. The Chinese took over the market which forced the Koreans to quit making LCD panels. Chinese OLED panel makers like BOE and Visionox are constantly growing.
At least five LCD display factories at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak are suffering production slowdowns, which is turn is expected to have an effect on the supply and pricing of displays used in PCs and LCD TVs.
Five LCD fabs reside in Wuhan, China, which has basically been shut down to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Informa Tech’s IHS Markit service said Friday that they expect that the capacity utilization for all LCD fabs in China could fall by at least 10 percent and by as much as 20 percent during February.
As a result, LCD panel prices are expected to rise. IHS said that preliminary estimates say that per-panel prices could rise $1 to $2, but could go as high as $3 to $5. That might not sound like much, but manufacturers typically tack on extra profit margins at each stage of production, potentially raising sale prices somewhat higher.
IHS estimates that about 55 percent of all LCD panels in the world will ship from China in 2020, meaning that the Chinese outbreak will have worldwide effects on the supply chain. Five fabs are in Wuhan itself, including two fabs owned by China Star Optoelectronics Technology, two owned by Tianma, and one BOE fab.
IHS reported seeing panic buying, including doublebooking, where a buyer will buy as much as they need from two suppliers just to ensure that they’ll be able to get the supplies they require. Even if the supplies are there, IHS also said that production at several key third-party LCD module suppliers has now ceased, severely impacting panel production throughout the country.Besides the slowdown in production at fabs that are already operating, IHS said that it expects new fabs to not come on line as quickly as expected.
All this is expected to have a direct effect on LCD panel pricing, and possibly ripple effects through laptop manufacturing as well. It’s worth noting that while Intel and AMD did not cite coronavirus effects among their forecasts, Microsoft did, with a broader than usual forecast for the second half of the year.
The World Health Organization has declared a global emergency surrounding coronavirus, and the U.S. State Department has banned travel to the country. More than 7,000 people have become infected, with nearly 200 deaths.
Faced with a reduced workforce caused by travel bans and quarantine conditions, LCD and OLED fabrication plants (fabs) across China struggled to resume normal operations in early‐ to mid‐February. Chinese LCD fabs were only expected to have a capacity utilization of 70 to 75 percent for the month compared to a normal rate of 90 to 95 percent, according to research from Omdia Display.
The biggest impact is in LCD displays for TVs and notebook computers. By late 2019, the prolonged issue of LCD panel over‐supply driven by Chinese fabs had begun to reverse course as Korean manufacturers restructured their capacity, shutting down some fabs and converting others to OLED production. According to Hsieh, concerns about an LCD panel supply going forward already had spurred some TV manufacturers to increase orders, and now that LCD production in China is slowing as a result of the COVID‐19 outbreak, LCD panel makers are seeking sharp price increases from their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, with a month‐to‐month jump of as much as 10 percent in some cases.
Omdia had originally forecast that the price for an open‐cell LCD TV panel was going to rise by $1 or $2 per month in February, but the actual increase may wind up being $3 to $5 for the month. “The problem is the coronavirus is coming so fast [that] the panel maker has been given a very good reason to increase the price radically,” Hsieh says. He also expects prices to increase for notebook displays, for which he predicts a 30–40 percent decrease in production for 2020"s first financial quarter (Q1), because of shortages in LCD modules.
In Wuhan itself, there are five major fabs, with four making smartphone displays. China Star and Tianma each operate a low‐temperature polycrystalline silicon LCD fab and a flexible OLED fab in the city, while BOE has a new Gen 10.5 LCD plant aimed at TV panels. Hsieh says that the China Star and Tianma OLED fabs are both in the ramping‐up stages, and the new BOE fab also is moving slowly. The biggest impact of COVID‐19 in Wuhan may be on the China Star Gen 6 OLED plant. Along with BOE, it"s slated to be a key supplier of flexible OLED panels for Lenovo"s new Motorola Razr foldable phone. “It"s unfortunate timing,” Hsieh says. —Glen Dickson