Vertical Divider

WitsView Reports LCD TVs Shipments Down 4.1% in 2017, Expects 3.9% Growth in 2018
January 22, 2018

WitsView reported that global shipments of branded LCD TV sets totaled 210 million units in 2017; down 4.1% on year, but 2018 shipments are expected to grow by 3.9% to 218 million. TV brands expect shipments to continue rising ahead of Chinese New Year, and to further expand during global sports events such as Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and World Cup. In 2018, Samsung's TV business will continue to be profit-oriented with product development focusing on QLED TVs for high-end market segments. The share of high-resolution (4K) and large-size (49-inch and larger) TV sets will both surpass 50% of the shipments, said WitsView. As for small size (under 49-inch), which has a lower gross margin, Samsung will increase the percentage of outsourcing in its manufacturing process to optimize the costs.

• Samsung is expected to retain the market leadership in 2018 despite a 1% drop due to its strategy of maximizing profit by concentrating on the high end market
• OLED TV showed remarkable performance this year, resulting in global shipments of 1.7 million units, a 72% rise compared from the previous year. WitsView expects that LG Electronics (LGE) and Sony will continue to expand their OLED offerings in the high-end market, and both brands will record shipment rises in 2018 reaching a total market of 2.5m units. OLED TV capacity could increase if LG adopts MMG when building 65” TVs, which could increase volume to 4.0m.
• TCL recorded sales of 14.3 million units, as the result of effective vertical integration of its panel, TV assembly and brand business and is to grow by 6.7% in 2018
• Hisense lacking in-house panel production resources will depend on developing the overseas market. Hisense has already taken steps to deploy overseas by purchasing Toshiba's television business. Hisense together with Samsung and TCL founded the ‘QLED Alliance’ as a front against OLED. Nonetheless, the company is planning to launch its first OLED TV this year in order to offer “a choice of both leading technologies”. The company is planning to launch its first OLED TV in the first half of the year. It will feature 4K resolution and HDR support but not much else is known. Hisense has released a picture, too.
• Foxconn which controls Sharp's panel resources and TV assembly supply chain, and its subsidiary, Innolux, has been expanding its television assembly business in 2017, Sharp's shipments grew to 9.4 million units, 97.5% Y/Y, said WitsView. Sharp has an annual target of over 12 million units in 2018. Although Sharp is not likely to enter the global top five in 2018, it could emerge as a threat to other Chinese TV brands lacking in-house panel resources, such as Hisense and Skyworth.
• Outsourced orders by brand TV vendors increased 15% on year in 2107 as brand vendors were seeking to scale down production costs caused by high panel prices by outsourcing more of their entry-level models to ODMs. TPV Technology remained the largest ODM TV supplier in 2017 with shipments growing 2.6% on year to 16.3 million units. Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai) ranked second with shipments increasing 72.8% to 14.6 million units, buoyed by its acquisition of Sharp.
• Among major China-based ODMs, TCL SCBC saw its shipments grow 24.3% on year to 8.3 million units; BOE VT (BOE Vision-Electronic Technology) ramped up its shipments by 12.5% to 7.7 million units; and CNC Optronics (Chunghsin Industry Group) increased its shipments by 30% to 7.6 million units. Shenzhen MTC's shipment expanded 25.7% to 6.5 million units.
• Outsourced TV shipments by the top-15 ODMs are expected to reach 88.5 million units in 2018, up 4.2% on year, Sigmaintell estimated.