Report: LCD panel boom is over
October 26, 2023
By Chris Forrester
A report from Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) says that the production boom in LCD panels is over. DSCC says that following the aggressive ramping up of fabrication plants in Q2 and Q3 last year, LCD makers are now slowing down production as demand softens.
That ‘boom’ was significant. DSCC says that worldwide LCD fabrication utilisation jumped to 83 per cent in Q3/2023, up from 65 per cent a year earlier during the Covid downturn. However, utilisation is forecast to drop back to 76 per cent in 2023/Q4 as panel makers put the brakes on output.
Factory fabrication utilisation rose sharply in 2021 and early 2022 amid pandemic-related demand, then plunged due to macroeconomic and geopolitical shocks. Chinese makers started recovering in Q4/2022, followed by Taiwan makers in Q1/2023 and Korean makers in Q2/2023.
DSCC says that stock of panels and displays for the end-of-year holiday periods is now adequate.
While LCD panel output has been slowed, there’s also lower demand for OLED panels. DSCC says that the slowdown was more severe and longer-lasting for OLED production lines compared to LCD. OLED accounts for 59 per cent of capacity in Korea but only 6 per cent in China.