TrendForce has announced that TV shipments reached historical highs in the third quarter thanks to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyst estimates that shipments hit 62.05 million units in 3Q20 which was 38.8% above 2Q20 and a 12.9% increase on 3Q19.
The upswing in shipments has been put down to a 20% increase in TV demand in North America and because TV brands deferred shipment schedules in 1H20 due to the pandemic; this led to more shipments in the third quarter and the trend looks like to continue into the next quarter. With demand expected to be high in the new few months, TrendForce expects panel prices to increase too.
In 4Q20, TrendForce believes that shipments will rise by 4% compared to 3Q20, reaching a total of 64.53 million units. It said that the total yearly shipments for 2020 will hit 216.09 million units which represents a decrease of 0.8% compared to 2019.
In its analysis, TrendForce took particular note of TCL which it said had benefited from the situation this year:
“TCL has been aggressively expanding in the overseas markets in recent years by optimizing its costs through the vertical integration of its in-house panel and TV production lines. TCL also benefitted from the stay-at-home economy brought about by the pandemic, which led to a massive growth of consumer demand for small- and mid-sized mainstream TV sets. As a result, TCL’s TV shipment in 3Q20 reached 7.33 million units, a 29% increase QoQ and 52.7% increase YoY, ranking it as the industry leader.”
With regards to panel prices, TrendForce said that 3Q20 saw 32-inch HD panels increase in price by more than 50% compared to the last quarter while 55-inch UHD panels saw a 41% increase over the same period. It said this trend will continue into 4Q20. Despite panel prices increasing, TrendForce expects the average retail price of TV’s in North America to drop 3-5% compared to 2019 because TV brands are willing to forego profits in order to reach their targets and increase their market shares.