Taiwan April Panel Sales & Shipments

5/10/2021

Taiwan April Panel Sales & Shipments

April panel sales in Taiwan declined for all three primary producers, however that should be looked at against both the strong March that all three saw, and the overall y/y strength that the panel industry has seen. That said, based on the data from AU Optronics (AUOTY), Innolux (3481.TT) and Hannstar (6116.TT), large panel production declined, with AUO, seeing shipment area -6.3% m/m (no data for y/y), Innolux saw large panel shipments decline 10.6%. Hannstar, while it saw a large drop in large panel shipments (-66.7%) is a small player in the large panel space and saw a large jump in March, returning to a more normalized large panel shipment rate in April. As AUO no longer gives direct large or small panel sales of shipments monthly, we rely on Innolux, who saw a 6.4% decline in small panel shipment, and Hannstar, the leader in small panel of the three, seeing an increase in small panel production of 16.8% m/m.

As we expect panel prices rose across the board again in April, lower sales indicate an overall slowdown in production after a strong March. We expect that panel producers pushed out as much product as possible in March before they faced depleted component or materials inventory, which began to limit production further in April. We note that panel sales remain substantially above historic levels as panel pricing has risen dramatically since the beginning of last year, and that even if sales level continue to fall, y/y comparisons will remain strong at least until August/September when pricing stabilized somewhat.
At least for now, component shortages will cap out unit volume, with overall sales dependent on panel price increases, and AUO pulling down some production for yearly maintenance. As a result of the shortages, we expect panel prices will continue to rise, offsetting lower panel volume, at least for the next month or two, but the reduced COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates in North America and a number of other key CE markets could help to relax global stay-at-home demand during the summer months. While there are a number of wild card countries still facing major COVID-19 outbreaks, the overall global infection and death rate has been almost flat since the beginning of the year.