Samsung, Xiaomi and other terminal manufacturers cut orders, and mobile phone panel prices continued to fall in April

On April 13, industry organization CINNO Research analyzed the mobile phone panel market and price changes. It believes that the COVID-19 epidemic is spreading rapidly in overseas countries, and many countries have begun to take measures such as city closures and factory shutdowns to control the further spread of the virus. The global economy and consumption have been hit hard, and the demand for mobile phones will inevitably decline. Smartphone panel prices will continue to fall slightly in April.

Specifically, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian factories have been shut down from March 23 to mid-April. In addition, due to the decline in future market demand expectations, brands such as Xiaomi and Samsung have reduced panel orders and postponed new projects. CINNO Research believes that domestic a-Si and LTPS mobile phone panel manufacturers such as BOE and Tianma, whose customers are mainly mobile phone brands and are the first suppliers to their customers, can still maintain a utilization rate of more than 80% this month, while other main suppliers of non-brand customers are facing a large decline in capacity utilization.

However, iPhone SE2 is expected to be released in mid-April, and Japan's Sharp, as the main screen supplier, will benefit the most and its utilization rate will be improved. In addition, South Korea's LGD plans to gradually stop supplying mobile phone LCD panels to Apple from the second quarter of 2020, and the demand for iPhone LCD panels will be concentrated on Japan Display JDI and Japan Sharp SHARP.

Due to the decline in demand and delays in new projects, CINNO Research estimates that the price of a-Si/LTPS smartphone panels will drop by approximately $0.1~$0.2 USD in April, and the price of AMOLED smartphone panels will drop by $0.5~$1.0 USD.