Taiwan's makers shipped 7.16 million LCD TVs in the second quarter of 2019 increasing 14.4% from the previous quarter, as US-based clients required advanced shipments to avoid their products likely being subject to higher tariffs to be imposed by the US government, according to Digitimes Research.
Due to a higher base built up by the sequential gain in the second quarter, Taiwan's TV shipments are likely to grow at a single-digit rate in the third quarter before seeing a seasonal uptick in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research says.
The short-term shipments also helped ramp up the ratio of US-bound shipments to 38.6% of combined TV shipments by Taiwan's makers in the second quarter compared to 25.4% a year earlier. The ratio was up due also to Vizio's release of more orders to Taiwan's makers.
During the same period, those TVs shipped to the Asian and European markets accounted for 30.5% and 23.6%, respectively, of total TV shipments.
With respect to TV sizes, the shipment share of over 60-inch models dropped to 11.7% in the second quarter as small-size models accounted for a majority of the short-term shipments to the US where importers can import large-size TVs from Mexico free of tariff charges.
Models in sizes ranging from 50- to 59-inch accounted for 32.1%. Overall, over 50-inch models are expected to account for over 50% of total shipments in the fourth quarter, Digitimes Research estimates.
The combined ratio of the top-two makers, TPV Technology and Foxconn Electronics, has dropped to 60% in the second quarter. Amtran Technology was third with shipments rebounding to over one million units in the quarter. But fourth-ranked Innolux could outrace Amtran in unit shipments in the fourth quarter as the company has been gearing up its TV assembling business.