February Final Panel Pricing
The fear of, or actual component shortages were the root of continued panel price increase in February, which exceeded our expectations in two of the three major large panel categories. There were some real events that contributed toward that fear for TV panels, particularly the explosion at the Asahi Glass (5201.JP) plant in Gumi, South Korea, which we expect will not reopen to production until the end of April, and the mid-December power outage at the Nippon Electric Glass (5214.JP) plant, which is still under repair. Together with driver and other shortage, these issues continued to pressure panel buyers to pay higher prices again in February.
Looking at TV panel prices specifically, February aggregate TV prices are now 75.6% above the low point (Jan ’20) last year and 9.1% above the December 2020 closing aggregate TV panel price, and are 41.1% above the highest TV panel price in 2019. To put this into greater perspective, if we look at TV panel prices over the last 33 months (fully comparative data), as shown in Fig. 6, every TV panel size has increased in price, with only 65” panels below the June 2018 price by 1.2%. In a cyclical industry that is known for LCD panel price declines, this is a very unusual circumstance. Possible scenarios for where panel prices go this year will be noted next week. Stay tuned.
Aggregate TV Panel Pricing & ROC - 2019 - 2021 - Source: SCMR LLC, IHS, Company Data
TV Panel Pricing - 33 Months - Source: SCMR LLC, IHS, Witsview
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