TV buyers around the world have benefited hugely from a fierce battle among Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese manufacturers to dominate in the liquid-crystal display panel industry. Despite the recession, consumer appetite for svelte TVs has stayed strong thanks in part to the continually dropping prices of LCD panels caused by cutthroat competition among panel makers. Prices for those panels have dropped below manufacturing and distribution costs, sending all of the world's manufacturers of LCD panels into the red. Now, just as recession-battered economies are showing signs of life and LCD prices are beginning to pick up, two electronics giants are launching state-of-the-art plants that could prolong the industry's woes. On June 2, Sony (SNE) Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer flew to Korea to attend a ceremony with his Samsung Electronics counterpart, Lee Yoon Woo, marking the start of volume production at a $1.5 billion new factory run by an LCD joint venture between their companies. The new plant, when fully ramped up by the end of this year, will double the venture's production of screens for giant TVs bigger than 46 inches. Less than three months ago, another Korean LCD maker, LG Display (LPL), began mass production in a similarly advanced factory, known as an eighth-generation facility. So could consumers planning to buy new LCD TVs for Christmas benefit from another round of major price drops? Not exactly, unless they want to buy ultra-large models. "LCD panels for 42 inches or smaller are in tight supply now," says Song Myung Sup, electronics analyst at brokerage HI Investment & Securities in Seoul. Song and other industry watchers believe the tight situation likely will continue until at least early autumn; by then TV makers will have already purchased panels and other parts to assemble them into sets in time for the holiday season.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment