Europe will make or break global TV panel market's recovery, Omdia says

MW
Mike Wheatley

Analysts from Omdia say they’re hopeful that increased demand from Europe will boost the global TV panel market this year, kick-starting a recovery after sales declined in 2023.

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According to a report in The Elec, demand for TVs in Europe has been hit by the war in Ukraine and high inflation, said Omdia Principal Analyst JinHan Ricky Park at the Korea Display Conference in Seoul last week.

However, he said he’s hopeful that events such as Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics, which will be held from June to August, can help to increase demand for new TV sets.

According to him, major TV brands have already increased their orders from panel makers in anticipation of a boost in demand due to those events. It suggests a high degree of confidence from TV makers that the events will help to spur new growth in the European market.

Park said the inventories of TV set and TV panel makers were previously at historic lows, but have recently increased.

However, he said TV makers must be hoping that this speculative demand will soon translate into real-world demand, or else it could harm the overall panel market during the second half of the year, when demand is traditionally higher. There’s a risk that TV makers will be unable to shift the additional panels they are procuring in anticipation of Euro 2024 and the Olympics, which would result in fewer orders ahead of the holiday season.

It comes at a time when Chinese display panel makers have reduced production at their LCD factories to try and prevent further price drops. If they maintain pre-2024 production levels, it would almost certainly result in a glut of panels on the market. However, even with this lower production, it’s unlikely that LCD panel prices will increase this year, Park said.

Last year, OLED TV panel shipments contracted, forcing both LD Display and Samsung Display to operate their production lines at below 50% capacity, Park said.

For large OLED TV panel shipments to grow this year, TV makers must be able to sell at least 10 million OLED TVs, Park said. That will require increased sales of OLED TVs from Chinese brands, as well as bigger brands such as LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Sony, Park added.