lcd panel shortage price

The lockdowns brought on by this crisis had caused many manufacturers to temporarily shut down. With the increasing amount of products incorporating LCDs and many productions lines down, it has become more difficult to meet

Global monitor panel shipments declined in the first quarter of the year, a report showed on Wednesday, mainly due to Samsung Displays exit from the monitor LCD display manufacturing business and a shortage of semiconductors.

The worldwide monitor panel shipments fell 8.6 percent on-quarter to 39.9 million units in the January-March period, according to the latest report from market researcher TrendForce.

"TrendForce indicates that SDC will exit the monitor LCD panel manufacturing business after it reaches its shipment target of 1.2 million panels in 1H21," it said. "This figure represents a staggering 93.8 percent decline compared to the 19.3 million units of LCD panels that SDC shipped throughout last year."

Samsung Display, the world"s top mobile display panel maker, has been focusing on its migration to next-generation quantum-dot (QD) displays, while withdrawing from the LCD business, reports Yonhap news agency.

But for large LCD panels for TVs, the company recently said it is mulling extending its manufacturing for one more year due to soaring demand from TV makers and rising panel prices.

TrendForce said the global monitor panel market also suffered a setback in the first quarter due to a shortage of components, such as integrated circuits and timing controllers.

"In addition, since TV and notebook (laptop) panels have higher profit margins compared to monitor panels, panel suppliers generally allocate less of their production capacities for manufacturing monitor panels relative to other products," it said.

"TrendForce believes that panel suppliers will likely in turn allocate more production capacities to clients in the monitor segment in 4Q21," it said.

"More specifically, the current shortage of components in the upstream supply chain, which has been exerting significant downward pressure on monitor panel shipments, will be gradually alleviated in 2H21."

Why it matters: The global semiconductor industry was worth $439 billion in 2020, and is on track to grow even bigger this year. However, that growth potential is being eroded by a shortage of $1 chips that are essential for every display panel that needs to be manufactured.

A global shortage of chips has wreaked havoc on the supply chains of the tech and auto industries. This has caused many companies to scale back production at a time when demand is soaring for their products. This is the result of a combination of factors, and the current situation will probably not change until the end of next year.

According to a Bloomberg report, there is now a serious shortage of display driver chips that is creating headaches for manufacturers of LCD and OLED panels. This in turn will affect all manner of consumer devices, from the lowly smartwatch to smartphones, tablets, laptops, computer monitors, TVs, smart appliances, and infotainment systems. Every new car or plane comes with one or more display panels, which only adds to the demand.

Nevertheless, the shortage of these driver chips will likely cause further delays and price hikes for products that are currently in high demand, and the manufacturers of these chips don"t see a solution in sight.

The shortfall is already visible in the doubling of prices for large LCD panels over the last year. Himax Technologies CEO Jordan WU told Bloomberg "I have never seen anything like this in the past 20 years since our company"s founding."

A shortage of large LCDs, which has lasted for almost a year, and which has resulted in the biggest panel price increases in the history of the industry, has begun to turn into an oversupply, according to research by consulting firm DSCC.

The shortage was driven by strong demand for TVs in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic, but increasing vaccination rates and higher inventory levels have led to a weakening in this market.

While every country has been affected by the pandemic and demand for LCD panels in IT applications remains high, the surge in demand for big TVs at premium prices in the US has had the biggest impact on LCD panel prices, feeding healthy profit margins at all major TV brands. But the surge of demand that started in Q2, 2020 is now slowing, as US consumers begin to spend more on travel and other activities that were restricted during lockdown.

DSCC expects the panel price for LCD TVs to begin to fall during the second half of 2021, but tight supply for various components such as driver ICs and glass substrates will continue for the time being.

COVID-19 has had a dramatic effect on the electronics industry. The worldwide drive for people to work and educate from home and the increase in demand for medical products have taken the supply of electronics components from overcapacity to shortage and extended lead times. This was multiplied by the shutdown of manufacturing and the attempt to catch up with previous demand. The industrial market has also gotten hit by the loss of small gen fab capacity due to the shutting down of older, less competitive fabs.

Before COVID-19, the display market had been in an oversupply with the slowdown in cell phone demand. With the increased demand for laptops, monitors, and even TVs has backfilled this capacity and driven us into a shortage situation. This shortage of electronic components is not only in the display market but extends to basic components like resistors and capacitors.

Based on Omdia’s Large Area Display Price Tracker, April 2021, Sanju Khatri, director of consulting for displays, ProAV and consumer devices at research and consultancy firm Omdia, provided some analysis on disruption in the display supply chain due to component shortage and high demand. Impact will be mostly felt on LCD technology, as strong demand and component shortage will lead to the following price cycles for LCD panels.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Three distinct terms are used below. Components (display driver IC, glass, and polarizer); panel (raw LCD panels) and brands/finished sets/device vendors (TV, monitor/laptops/ProAV vendors).

Strong consumer demand for TVs/IT displays. The “at home” trends are including work at home, learn at home, entertain at home and shop at home. The LCD TV, Notebook, LCD monitor, and tablet PC products continue to have the strong demand thanks to the “at home” trends.

Display panel makers are increasing prices sharply to take the fast turnaround on profitability. The LCD TV open cell prices have been increasing by 40%-50% from June 2020 to December 2020. And it is expected there will be another 20% increase from January 2021 to May 2021.

Component shortage(Glass substrate, Display Driver IC, T-con, PMIC, Polarizer films) are frustrating the supply chain from time to time, making the set makers to be more nervous thus giving more orders. Three display components are especially tight in 2021, represented by “P.I.G.”

P: Polarizer, protective/release films and surface treatment capacity are in tightness due to the production bottleneck and the retreat of the makers. However, the polarizer shortage is viewed as a short term as the long-term polarizer supply is sufficient.

I: IC, Display Driver IC supply is expected to loosen from 2H21however, limited foundry capacity and allocation competition with other IC applications may continue to complicate display panel shipments into the future. Even with the incremental display driver IC wafer foundry in the second half of 2021 (2H21), it is possible the wafer capacity allocation will be shifting to other IC applications.

G: Glass substrate is in tightness due to the unexpected accidents happened in the suppliers from 4Q20 to 1Q21. The glass substrate shortage is viewed as a short term but especially serious within these couple of months due to some accidents that happened in NEG and AGC. The recovery schedule is expected to take 6 months in Omdia’s estimation. In April 2021, there were also some yield rate challenges in glass tanks in Korea, which caused the short-term tightness in 2Q21.

The start of a new year is normally a busy time for computer manufacturers and technology companies, and 2021 has proven no different. What has proven different this year is the availability of some crucial supplies. with the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, people have made a major shift to working at home. This shift has had a severe impact on computer and component manufacturers worldwide. The workforce has spent much of the past year buying new LCD monitors and laptops while investing in various work-from-home solutions to make it a little easier to keep things running even when they can’t make it to the office.

Outside of business concerns, the demand for leisure devices has also increased. People who cannot go out and socialize are instead purchasing gaming systems, PCs, and TVs, while parents are buying their children tablets and notebooks as entertainment. The pandemic has created an increase in demand and industry-wide shortages of both display panels and power management IC components, including phones. The shortage isn’t just due to the pandemic, of course. Many component manufacturers were already seeing an increase in demand generated by the rollout of 5G technology and the release of two new major game consoles. That the pandemic just happened to hit during a time of significant technological change simply increased existing demand that much more. This sudden demand for all of the components parts in display screens, computers, and TVs brought about a unique situation. Not only is it unnecessary for component manufacturers to market to clients this year, but many are also having to actively turn business away or schedule it for months down the line.

For manufacturers higher up in the supply chain, this is good news. TSMC’s share prices have risen by 50% in 2020 alone; United Microtechnology’s value has more than doubled. While they are working on expanding their capacity, the current demand for new devices and their associated components is likely to continueexceeding supplyfor the rest of the calendar year.However, for people and businesses that need these delayed devices, the shortage is moreserious.

Component and computer shortages affect many more parties than simply the manufacturers. Consumers and businesses at the end of the supply chain see effects as well when it is so difficult to get new machines produced. The problem is that none of these components are used in isolation. The microchips, LCD components, touchscreen elements, and even glass for screens are all utilized in a wide variety of technology, including things that your business may use. Indeed, as demand for phones increases, it becomes harder to source chips for all devices. The result is that it’s simply harder and more expensive to get any type of computing technology. From phones to laptops to desktops, the chip shortage makes it more challenging to find the technology you may need.

IT products like desktop PCs are slightly less impacted by the current shortages than many other products. In general, people who made the switch to working from home have been more likely to purchase a laptop instead of a desktop. Even so, desktop machines are still being affected by shortages and long wait times. In addition, the increased demand for gaming PCs is keeping

When this pressure is combined with the need for functional work laptops, it entails that mobile devices and LCD panels may be facing delivery times as long as three months. It is possible to obtain devices on a shorter timeline, but at present, it appears that end-users like businesses will pay the price. Early estimates suggest that PC prices might rise by as much as 30% in 2021 to account for the shortages. When all these delays and shortages are combined, it spells a clear message: this is not the time to upgrade your hardware. Instead, focus on improving and securing the hardware you already have.

“The No. 1 component in shortage is a component that goes into the panel, the driver IC,” said Linn Huang, an analyst who covers personal computers at IDC.

“Anything with an LCD panel, a TV, a phone or a tablet, but notebooks predominantly, you will need a chip that has an LCD driver, telling the panel what pixel to light up or not,” said Shane Rau, an IDC analyst who covers semiconductors. He said smartphones and TVs are both are experiencing LCD shortages, but the pain of the shortage is being felt by the purchasers of notebook computers, which have become hot items.

Chief Executive Enrique Lores confirmed the issue just last week, at the Bernstein Research Strategic Decisions Conference. When asked by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi what components are currently the most constrained and putting the most pressure on the company, the first one cited by Lores was LCD drivers.

“Today, the situation on processors has significantly improved,” Lores said. “And now, we see the biggest shortages in panels, not driven by the glass, but driven by the components that panels used.” He added that other low-cost components, such as Wi-Fi controllers, were also a problem.

The factors behind the overall global semiconductor shortage are many and varied, from the U.S. – China Trade war to the COVID-19 pandemic to the overall structure of the semiconductor industry. The result is some shortages, and rising prices. The shortage of LCD drivers has already affected the prices of televisions.

“In the case of TV panels, prices have gone up by 100%, prices have doubled in the last 12 months,” said Bob O’Brien, co-founder, principal and CFO of DSCC (Display Supply Chain Consultants) in Austin, Texas. “The whole picture of demand was so tremendously distorted by the pandemic, it didn’t matter what the price was, people would still buy.”

mentioned price increases. Dell also referred to inflationary costs of some components. Indeed, the price of the usually low-cost LCD drivers has jumped, but these are prices that start at around $1 a part.

“Pricing varies on the size of the display, the resolution. The higher-end displays need more sophisticated LCD drivers,” IDC’s Rau said. “For something that is so cheap compared to a microprocessor in your notebook — that costs from $50 to $100 — something that is so relatively inexpensive can hold up the shipping of the entire system. That is the crux of the concern.”

“Two years ago, when they were making plans for LCD drivers they were going to manufacture, they did not plan to have a pandemic,” Rau said. The pandemic disrupted the manufacturing of all semiconductors, as well as their materials, and there have been several other additional events that have disrupted both the manufacturing and the shipping of parts and materials. Power outages and explosions at two glass factories, and the Suez Canal blockage, piled onto what has become an unprecedented situation.

Himax is one of the two biggest makers of LCD panels in Taiwan, and Wu explained that the chips are in shorter supply compared with the higher cost CPUs, GPUs or memory chips because the LCD drivers use a much lower end manufacturing processes, which are being phased out the semiconductor foundries that contract out manufacturing services. While microprocessor companies like Intel Corp.

As consumer appetite for personal computers and laptops has been surprisingly insatiable during the pandemic, companies had not planned for specific parts, such as LCD drivers, to be in huge demand. The PC has been seeing its biggest growth in years, with world-wide unit growth surging 55.2% in the first quarter of 2021, according to IDC.

The outlook for your ability to get the 2021 model TV you might have your eyes on, and the price you might have to pay for it isn’t good right now, following reports of component shortages limiting production yields this year.

According to reports out of Asia, widespread component supply shortages could impact availability on LCD TV panels from TCL owned panel maker China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSoT) and Innolux, two of the world’s largest LCD panel suppliers.

The display panel manufacturers were reported by Korean electronics business news site The Elec on Mondayas warning that supplies of panels are expected to be “tight throughout the year.”

TCL chairman Li Dongsheng used a media briefing last week to announce that panel shortages will continue in the first half of 2021, following conditions already hampered last year during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Elec article also cited Innolux president James Yang warning of a shortage in LCD panels caused by strong demand for LCD coming out of the global Covid-19 crisis, and he also added the conditions are expected to continue through 2021.

Innolux has seen shortages in LCD components including power semiconductors, driver ICs and glass substrates that have kept production below capacity. Shortages of integrated circuits and semiconductors could continue right up to the first half of 2022, Yan cautioned.

Ironically, prior to the run on LCD panel supplies, manufacturers were also faced with the dilemma of overproduction causing a glut in inventory, which was driving prices artificially lower. This was the result of giant new LCD fabs coming online in China and other areas of Asia.

TV manufacturers reportedly have been moving aggressively to replenish inventories of LCD panels to meet strong sales of TVs and other devices to meeting escalating demand, particularly in the United States and Europe.

At the same time, Samsung Display LCD monitor panel supplies for monitors are on course to terminate by the end of the first quarter 2021, and supply of IT panels overall will only continue to tighten up as demand increases for TVs and notebook panels, according to Asian analyst reports.

China-based Sigmaintell last week estimated the average selling price for a 21.5-inch LCD module for monitors would rise $3 to $55 this month, compared to a $2.50 increase for 23.8-inch panels and $2 increase for 27-inch monitor panels.

However, you won’t be pleased that the shortage will increase, and it will likely persist until the following year due to some developments that have affected manufacturing.

The actual quantity of the damaged goods and products was not specified, but you’d be impressed to know that AUO’s facility in Taiwan produces millions of panels. It made more than 10 million large modules for TVs and a little less than 9.5 million small to medium screens meant for monitors last month. An hour of stoppage means that several thousand will get delayed, but that doesn’t count the number of broken panels that are already fragile or sensitive, to begin with.

Foundries for other parts such as memory modules or processors aren’t as affected even if they suspended operations as well. TrendForce reported that they were indeed halted by the earthquake, but the damage to their equipment and product was limited since they aren’t as fragile as LCD panels.

It also doesn’t get any better at this point since existing shortages for boards and ICs have already affected supply and pricing. Factor in the effect of the pandemic, and you will get a level of uncertainty for manufacturing and sales in 2021. These two massive disruptions seem like they will make the shortage we are experiencing now worse, so we have no choice but to recommend grabbing what you can as soon as possible.

Half of the ill effects we mentioned are speculation at this point, and even the CEO of AU Optronics has not yet commented regarding the effects on pricing. However, basic economics will dictate that a large-scale shortage like this will lead to price hikes, especially at a time where demand and the growth of the display and monitor market are steadily expanding.

Bloomberg today reported that a shortage of inexpensive display driver chips has delayed production of the LCD panels used in, well, pretty much every product category you can think of. Displays are ubiquitous, and many devices can"t function without them. But for the displays to work, they require a display driver — no, not Nvidia or AMD display drivers, those are software. We"re talking about a tiny chip that sends instructions and signals to the display.

All of which means that a display driver shortage can cause delays for smartphones, laptops, and game consoles; automobiles, airplanes, and navigation systems; and various appliances, smart home devices, and other newly be-screened products.

Companies will have to sit on otherwise-ready displays (assuming panel production improves) until that changes. This probably seems familiar to manufacturers waiting for SSD controller supply to rebound after the February disruption of a Samsung fab.

That"s only part of the problem, of course, as the global chip shortage affects practically every aspect of the electronics industry. It"s a matter of improving the availability of CPUs, GPUs, mobile processors, chipsets, display panels, single board computers, and who-knows-how-many other components. No biggie.

A long-standing supply crunch for liquid-crystal display panels is starting to lift, providing hope that prices for flat-panel monitors will begin falling again later this year.

"We see supply of LCD panels beginning to loosen from the shortage we saw the last three quarters of last year," Ross Young, president of research firm DisplaySearch, said Friday.

The majority of LCD panels that are 10 inches or more in diagonal width are used in computer monitors, Young said. But suppliers focused on notebook and TV applications last year because those products have higher profit margins, he said. Monitors "sort of got the short end of the stick during the shortage," he added.

Thanks partly to decreased demand for televisions after the holiday season, prices for large LCD panels for televisions are falling, Young said. But the average price for 15-inch panels for monitor use is expected to climb from $218 in January to $224 in March, he said.

Not surprisingly, that"s translating into continued price increases in actual monitor products in the United States. "Those prices haven"t started going down again yet" on average, said Samantha Nebrich, an analyst at iSuppli/Stanford Resources. Nebrich said that after steady declines in what it cost to buy an LCD monitor, prices started rising in the third quarter of 2003. The average price of a 15-inch LCD monitor in the United States in the fourth quarter was $327, up from $302 in the third quarter, Nebrich said.

A reversal in the pricing trend will probably happen in the latter half of this year, she said. That prediction is in keeping with DisplaySearch"s forecast for increased LCD panel supplies. Young said the first quarter should see a 2 percent surplus of panels in the market, and that should expand to 4 percent in the second quarter and 5 percent in the third quarter.

Key to additional supplies is a major increase in capacity from LCD panel suppliers, which include Samsung. Young said suppliers are set to invest $10 billion in new equipment this year, which is 50 percent more than the greatest amount ever invested in a single year.

Monitor prices may soon be on the rise, or at least there’s potential for that happening, with existing LCD panel shortages likely to worsen thanks to a couple of recent unfortunate events.

The earthquake was problematic for AU Optronics, a prolific producer of LCDs and a name you’ll often see mentioned in conjunction with monitor panels. It took out some of the firm’s assembly lines for a period of time, resulting in lost production as per a DigiTimes(opens in new tab) report (with word coming from the chairman of AU Optronics, Paul Peng).

Output is back to normal now, but the impact from those supply losses will be felt in conjunction with the event in Japan. That was a power outage in Takatsuki which affected a Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) production facility that makes glass substrates for flat panel displays.

NEG’s production comprises of around 10% of the world’s glass substrate manufacturing, and it supplies the makers of various LCD panels, so the issues with glass substrates will have a knock-on effect in the monitor supply chain.

What exactly is short in the market? Your iPhone’s screen is one solid unit made up of several elements that are fused together with OCA (optically clear adhesive). The exterior glass, the digitizer panel (touch sensor), the polarizer and LCD panel. The LCD panel is the key component that is in short supply. Originally Apple had 3 manufacturers to produce LCD panels (LG, Sharp and Toshiba). Apple’s authorized manufacturers have the exclusive technology to produce LCD panels. Other Chinese manufacturers can copy the glass, digitizer, polarizers, OCA, flex cables, backlights, frames and everything except for the main component of the LCD assembly.

How were we getting these parts before? A big leak in Apple’s supply chain. The iPhone 5, 5S and 5C all share most of the same raw components including the LCD panel, the only difference is the flex cable and plastic frame. Independent factories in China can produce these components and can manufacture any 5 series assembly from an LCD panel. Shown on the left is a pulse pressing machine, used to connect the flex cable to the LCD. We use one of these to repair LCDs with damaged flex cables.

So what’s happening?A few things, first Apple has cut off LG and Toshiba, making Sharp their exclusive supplier for iPhone LCD panels and implemented very tight security. Secondly, they have had Foxconn destroy stockpiles of series 5 LCD panels to reduce the parts and material leakage to factories that re-engineer them for the independent repair industry. Along with this strategy, Apple has instructed Foxconn to reduce series 6 materials leakage from their manufacturing centers. Lastly, Apple is working aggressively with US Customs to seize inbound parts.

How long is this shortage going to last? In short,we have no idea. At the time of this writing, LCD prices have been steadily rising for 6 months and replacement iPhone 6S LCDs cost twice what Apple charges for their repair service. Apple does not intend to compete with independent repair shops, instead they are squeezing the profit out of the industry. LCD refurbishing may help shops cut cost but without new LCD panels entering the system it won’t last long.

What does this mean for the independent repair community?Apple is the only repair operation that is immune. Even the Chinese LCD refurbishing plants used by the large chain repair companies are running out of LCDs. Continually rising costs may push out the big chains but with lower overhead and clever problem-solving, the owner-operated shops stand a fighting chance.