Taipei, July 1 (CNA) Taiwan's liquid crystal display (LCD) industry will post limited growth in shipments this year because of increasing competition from Chinese television panel makers and slowing demand for mobile phones displays, according to a local government-sponsored research house.

The Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) recently predicted that Taiwan's large LCD panel shipments will total 239 million units in 2012, up 2 percent from 2011, while those of small and medium panels will increase 0.6 percent from last year to 1.55 billion units.

Despite rising demand for notebook and LCD TV displays in the second half of this year, large LCD panel shipments will face growth constraints such as slower global monitor shipments and heated competition from Chinese TV panel makers, MIC senior industry analyst Charles Chou said in a statement.

Shipments of small and medium LCD panels are expected to be driven by strong demand for tablet computers and telematic applications, but overall growth will remain limited, given slowing demand for mobile phone displays, Chou said.

According to MIC, Taiwanese vendors shipped 18 million LCD TV panels during the first six months of 2012, a decrease of 28 percent from the same period last year.

Though these figures will reach 43 million units for 2012, they are expected to be down 9.8 percent from 2011, the Taipei-based institute projected.

This is attributed to some global TV manufacturers reducing their annual shipment targets and orders with Taiwanese panel suppliers in the face of stagnated growth in mature markets such as the United States, Europe and Japan, the intelligence center said.

(By Jeffrey Wu)
ENDITEM/Robert