Taipei, May 9, 2008 (CENS)--Shipments of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels declined by only 1% in the first quarter, a traditional off season, according to DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in flat panel display (FPD) market research and consulting.

The research firm predicted that panel shipments in the second quarter would increase by 5% due to strong demand from information technology (IT) and LCD TV markets.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO), the No. 2 TFT-LCD panel manufacturer in Taiwan, replaced Samsung Electronics of South Korea for the first time to become world`s No. 1 monitor-panel supplier in the first quarter. Samsung and AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), the largest panel manufacturer in Taiwan, ranked the No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the segment.

During the first quarter, the top-three notebook PC panel suppliers were LG Display (LGD, formerly LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd. or LPL), Samsung and AUO, respectively; while that of the LCD TV panel segment were AUO, Samsung, and LGD.

According to DisplaySearch, about 2.8 million monitor panels were adopted to produce LCD TVs in the first quarter, a minor decrease from about three million units in the fourth quarter of 2007. In the segment, CMO was the largest supplier by shipping about 1.1 million 19-inch wide-format and 22-inch wide-format TV-monitor panels.

In the first quarter, DisplaySearch statistics showed, Samsung was the world`s largest supplier of large-sized (over-10-inch) TFT-LCD panels with unit shipment of 22.9 million units (translating into market share of 20.5%), followed by AUO`s 22.3 million (20%), LGD`s 22.1 million (19.8%), CMO`s 15.7 million (14%), and Sharp`s five million (4.5%).

DisplaySearch predicted that LCD TV sales in the second quarter would maintain stable, but are expected to boom in May or June when some major brands such as Sony and Samsung begin aggressive price-cutting campaigns to stimulate purchase willingness and digest inventories.

In the fist quarter, the research firm said, 19-inch panels (including wide-format products) accounted for the greatest part (41.8%) of total monitor-panel shipments, trailed by 17-inch (including wide-format, 25%), 22-inch (14%). For notebook PC application, the 15.4-innch products accounted for 53% of the total. Te 32-inch panels won a share of 40% in the TV-panel shipments in the period, while over-40-inch products 28%.

A total of 111.6 million large-sized TFT-LCD panels were shipped in the first quarter, DisplaySearch said, down 1% from the fourth quarter of 2007, including 33 million notebook PC panels and 49.7 million monitor panels, up 2% and 1%, respectively, from previous quarter. LCD TV panel shipments reached 25.1 million units, down 11% sequentially.

Major Large-sized TFT-LCD Suppliers
Rank	Monitor	Notebook PC	LCD TV	Other Category
1	CMO	LGD	AUO	AUO
2	Samsung	Samsung	Samsung	Sharp
3	AUO	AUO	LGD	LGD
Source: DisplaySearch.

(by Quincy Liang)