China panel makers' shipments of small- to medium-size panels in the second half of 2015 are expected to grow 15.5% over the first half of the year, which will also represent a 6.7% on-year increase, according to Digitimes Research.
BOE is continuing to push forward production of tablet panels on its 8.5G facilities and is increasing its production proportion of handset panels on 6G production lines. CEC Panda meanwhile is continuing to increase mass production of small- to medium-size panels while Tianma Optoelectronics 5.5G facilities will run at full capacity. These trends come as the white-box tablet market and feature handset segment are shrinking in China.
In the second half, handset panels will account for 76% of China makers' overall small- to medium-size panel shipments, with shipments increasing 7.8% over the first half of the year. However, compared with the second half of 2014 this shipment figure represents a 0.1% decline. Digitimes Research said this is due to a slowdown in orders from white-box handset vendors coupled with increased competition from Japan- and Korea-based panel makers.
Tablet applications only accounted for 6% of China makers' overall small- to medium-size panel shipments in the first half of 2015 but that percentage will increase to 9% due to BOE receiving a new influx of orders coupled with new production efforts from CEC Panda. New tablet panel orders will help China makers' achieve 9.3% on-year growth in tablet panel shipments during the second half of 2015 and BOE is expected to hold the largest shipment share at around 75%, said Digitmes Research.
