Large-Area Display Shipments Dipped Overall In 2022, But Pro Displays Grew By More Than 26%: Omdia

March 23, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Via Display Daily …

The research firm Omdia says a combination of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and wobbling economies in much of the world slowed shipments in 2022 of what it calls large-area displays.

The company’s latest Large Area Display Market Tracker 4Q22 (which is paywalled for the full report) suggests large area display shipments decreased last year by 8.2% Year on Year in unit numbers and 3.1% in total area. “The global recession and the Russia-Ukraine war in Europe have resulted in frozen large area display demands from early 2022. As a result, industry peers have suffered from high pipeline inventories.”

Shipments in 2023 are being forecasted by Omdia to increase by 0.8% year in unit and 3.5% in area.

Notably, a chart that comes with the executive summary suggests commercial displays had a great 2022. Omdia sorts pro displays into a bucket called Others/PID (short for Public Information Displays). That category easily saw the best unit shipment performance in 2022, up more than 26%. 2023 is expected to be much slower, at just over 3%.

This was in Display Daily, and I can’t find a formal release on this … so quoting from the publication, which offers news and analysis on the pro display market, from VT glasses up to LED video walls.

“To clean up pipeline inventories, display buyers cut their orders significantly from mid-2022 which brought great price erosion in 2022. As a result, display makers reduced their productions from 2H22 due to less demand even with historically low display prices. Display shipments in 2022 decreased especially for notebook PC displays which had relatively higher inventories” said Peter Su, Principal Analyst of Omdia. 

However, large area display shipments are forecasted to increase in 2023 for both unit and area shipments. Su explains that  “Inventory issues have eased recently. IT displays such as notebook PC may need more time to clean up inventories, but retailers and brands are considering pulling LCD TV displays in 1H23 particularly Chinese TV brands and OEMs who also supply OEM TVs to the US and Europe.”

According to Omdia’s research, size migration for TVs will help to increase area shipments in 2023. 65-inch and above TV display shipments decreased 5% YoY in 2022 owing to global recession and display makers’ low fab utilization for Gen 10.5 fabs due to historical low display prices. However, it is forecast 65-inch and above TV display shipments will increase by 17% YoY in 2023. 

This however does not mean that display makers will increase TV display unit shipments in 2023 but rather  follow a conservative TV display unit shipments plan in order to prevent price erosion in 2023. Su says that “display makers have set increments of shipment targets for IT displays in 2023 to counteract the inventory issues created in 2022. We expect buyers will be back after a clean-up of inventories. Additionally, display makers need to increase IT displays in order to hedge the loss from TV displays.” 

Omdia expects supply and demand for large area display to improve from 2H23, display makers to keep their policy “production to order” in order to prevent further display price erosion and inventory issues to ease as display buyers begin to refill their inventories from mid-2023.