Yang Qingxiang, research manager of WitsView, pointed out that under the blessing of the World Cup demand for early stocking, the performance of TV brand shipments in the first quarter of this year was dazzling, but the doubts that the overall channel inventory was too large began to emerge in the second quarter, prompting TV brands to adjust. The rhythm of the goods and the demand for panel purchases. Although the market is still looking forward to the demand for the third quarter of the peak season, if the price of the TV panel is too strong, it will be detrimental to the promotion of TV brands and may inhibit the expansion of some demand.
WitsView pointed out that QLED high-end TV, led by Samsung's leading TV brand, was eclipsed by the strong challenge of the OLED TV camp last year. However, Samsung actively cleared the channel inventory of old products in the first half of this year, plus the TV panel of the first half of the year. The price continues to drop, so that QLEDs with LCD panels and QD diaphragms have more opportunities to show cost advantages. But because of the high-end products, Samsung’s overall shipments are expected to decline to 41 million this year. station.
Compared with Samsung's full-strength sprint QLED, LG Electronics and Sony adopted a stable and stable strategy. The second quarter shipments ranked second and fifth respectively. WitsView pointed out that the two brands are profiting from the continued promotion of OLED products. The performance is better than expected, and because the inventory maintains a healthy water level, the shipment status will not be ups and downs. In the second half of the year, LG Electronics will continue to expand the sales proportion of OLED products. The shipment volume this year is expected to maintain a small growth to 28.6 million units. Maintaining a high-end product image will strategically abandon some low-end and non-profitable products, and this year's shipments are expected to decline slightly to 11.6 million units.
Chinese brands TCL and Hisense have promoted brand awareness in the World Cup through celebrity endorsements and official sponsorships. Although the second quarter shipments of the two brands were slightly affected by the premature elimination of the World Cup stocking effect, the number of shipments still ranked third. Fourth. WitsView estimates that TCL's annual shipments will be approximately 16.6 million units in 2018, while Hisense will be approximately 13.8 million units.
Seeing that the Chinese TV market is gradually saturated, the development of the overseas TV market has become the key to the growth of Chinese brands. TCL has actively expanded its overseas markets such as North America with the panel cost advantage of the same group Huaxing Optoelectronics; Hisense also bought Toshiba TV for 40 years last year. The right to expand into Haikou, we can expect the influence of Chinese brands in the global TV market will increase with time.
WitsView said that after entering the third quarter, 32 吋 and other small sizes began to drive the price of the panel to reverse the trend, while the TV brand and the foundry in the hope of avoiding the shortage of the peak season, let the panel market increase the price of the situation More serious. But for TV brands, the cost of the panel is stable to help plan the terminal price of future promotions. Therefore, the panel cost and supply uncertainty will bring more risks to the brand's peak season promotion.