The shipment of smartphone panels in the Chinese mainland in 2019 accounted for 53.2% of the global market share, supposing the 50% line for the first time, a report released by market research firm CINNO Research showed today.
In 2019, the global market for smartphone panel shipments was approximately 1.86 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6%. This is the third consecutive year of decline in shipments since the first drop in global smartphone panel shipments in 2017.
This is because on the one hand, the technological innovation of mobile phone terminals has not stimulated the market demand enough, and on the other hand, in order to launch new 5G devices, the supply chain focuses on controlling the inventory of 4G old products, the report said.
In 2019, only Chinese mainland panel makers' smartphone panel shipments increased by 16% year-on-year, and shipments in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea all declined to varying degrees.
(Photo from Unsplash)
BOE's shipments in 2019 surpassed Samsung Display for the first time, becoming the world's largest smartphone panel maker.
The world's top ten smart phone panel manufacturers accounted for 87.8% of shipments, ranking in order of BOE, Samsung Display, Tianma, Innolux, Hanyu Caijing, Huaxing Optoelectronics, Japan Display (JDI), Longteng Optoelectronics, Shenzhen Super Optoelectronics and AU Optronics.
At the same time, Tianma continued to hold the top spot in global shipments of LTPS LCD smartphone panels, with a market share of 23.3%.
Affected by the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Chinese panel factories will face greater supply chain and production pressures in the short term. So, will China's orders for smartphone panels be partially transferred to suppliers in other regions?
CINNO Research's chief industry analyst, Zhou Hua, told Yicai.com that panel technology is already at a mature stage and that new plants in other regions are not scale-efficient and competitive. Therefore, this epidemic will not change the overall competition pattern of the global panel industry, but it may delay the timetable for South Korean panel makers to shut down LCD panel production lines, and the launch of new smartphone products may also be delayed.
Zhou Hua believes that in the short term, for some products with higher shipping time requirements, the transfer of orders may occur, but the difficulty is relatively large.
At the same time, China 's mobile phone sales in the first quarter of the mainland were greatly affected by the epidemic. In 2020, China 's smartphone sales may face a new low in ten years and a fourth consecutive year of decline.
If the epidemic can be effectively controlled by the end of February, CINNO Research predicts that China's smartphone sales will decline by about 9% to 350 million units in 2020.
If it continues to extend to the end of April, the impact of the supply chain will be amplified, sales may fall by 17% to 23%, and annual sales will fall to 300 to 320 million units. As a result, they expect global smartphone panel shipments to decline by more than 2.3% in 2020.