According to the latest survey by WitsView, a research division of TrendForce, the contract manufacturing volume from Taiwan’s TV SIs reached 10.84 million units, up by 19.6% QoQ. This marked the first time where the 10 million mark was surpassed and also a new high in terms of the quarterly growth in 2010. The growth was mainly attributed to the traditional hot selling season in the European and US markets, and the extension of the Eco-point subsidy program in Japan to the end of 2010. The extension gave a further boost to the already hot demand in Japan, thereby resulting in Taiwan’s TV SIs orders to be fully booked. Compal and Amtran saw the most evident quarterly growth, respectively jumping by roughly 33% and 60% QoQ. Region-wise, the traditional hot selling season in the US/Europe and Japan markets pushed shipments to climb by 1.6% and 4.8% QoQ. Meanwhile, thanks to the Eco-point subsidy program, where a higher subsidy was provided to the larger-sized TV segment, shipments of the 40” and above rose by 3.9% QoQ. Even the shipment ratio of the 52” and above segment accounted for a surprisingly 3%.

 

As brand vendors continue to strategically release more orders, Taiwan’s TV SIs are also trying to further enhance their R&D and manufacturing capabilities to take full advantage of this trend. Linda Lin, Research Manager of WitsView indicated that the total shipments from Taiwan’s TV SIs reached 35.12 million units in 2010, up by 47% YoY. Looking into 2011, aside from securing the low to medium end LCD TV orders, she advises that Taiwan’s TV SIs further enhance their system development and assembly capacity to take in more medium to high-end TV orders in order to drive their shipment growth to a new high. In addition, they should also aggressively tap the new emerging market segment to offset the expected forthcoming market slowdown in Japan, as the Eco-point subsidy program comes to a close.