Year end research by Display Search shows that the LCD panel market for 2008 is expected to grow about 18% from 379.5 million units in 2007 to 447.7 million units by 2008, with LCD TV panels likely to top the application list with the most dramatic growth of 26% followed by notebook panels at 14% and monitor panels at 12%.
In tandem with increasingly strong demand for LCD TV-use panels for 2008, the flagship size category has migrated from 32-inch to 40/42-inch and 46-inch at a rapid pace, and 52-inch LCD panels are likely to open up a new market, spurring up full-scale competition with 50-inch range PDP TVs. Monitor panels are also projected to become larger with the size standard shifting from 17-inch to 19/22-inch wide, and a more than 95% of notebook panels will be comprised of the wide format.
On the other hand, fabrication lines that are planned to come on line in 2008 are Samsung Electronics' T8-2 (8th-generation) line slated to begin mass production from the third quarter of 2008, Chi Mei Optoelectronics' Fab 6 (6th-generation) line, and Century's 5G line. In 2009, a larger number of new lines such as LG.Philips LCD's P8 line, AUO's 8G line and Sharp's 10G line are predicted to be put into operations compared to the previous year. Therefore, production proportion at 6G and more advanced lines is predicted to rise from 46.3% in the first quarter of 2007 to 65.4% by the fourth quarter of 2009.
