PALO ALTO – The LCD manufacturing equipment market topped $1.5 billion in 2006 and will reach $2.3 billion by 2013, Frost & Sullivan’s World LCD Manufacturing Equipment Markets reveals.
Improved HD and larger LCD televisions increase demand and drives the growth of the LCD manufacturing equipment market. Additionally, decreased panel prices have made LCD TVs more affordable, which will lead to phenomenal LCD TV growth, says Frost.
Despite the increase in panel sizes, the sales of older generation equipment will not come to a standstill as desktop monitors, cellphones and other electronics utilize smaller display sizes. Countries such as China will continue to see investment in older generation equipment as they manufacture large volumes of small-sized displays, says the research firm.
The market’s fierce competition leads to extreme price pressures, further compounded by the fall in glass substrates’ prices. Therefore, for equipment vendors to maintain profitability, they must manage cost structures and find new ways to control costs, concludes the firm.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – Global revenue for large-sized (10" or greater) LCD panels will rise to $66 billion this year, up 22.2% from 2006, says iSuppi Corp. This represents a 6% increase compared to iSuppli’s previous forecast.
iSuppli raised its forecast for large LCD shipments, citing rising demand, tightening supply and increasing prices.
Worldwide shipments are forecast to reach 353.8 million units, up 25.2% year-over-year. iSuppli previously predicted shipments of 350.1 million units.
Demand is rising from the major markets for such panels: televisions, desktop monitors and notebook PCs, says the research firm. Meanwhile, inventories remain under control. This combination of rising demand and constrained supply is causing overall panel prices to increase, says iSuppli.
This strength should continue during the coming years, says the company. The large LCD panel market is expected to expand to 597.6 million units by 2011, up 2% from iSuppli’s previous forecast. Revenue will reach $102 billion in 2011, up 6% from the prior prediction. This will mark the first year the global large-sized LCD panel market will exceed $100 billion, says the firm.
iSuppli has upgraded its forecast of global large-sized LCD-TV panel shipments in 2007 to 77.5 million units. The firm predicts LCD-TV panel shipments will rise to 180.45 million units in 2011, up 5% from the previous forecast.
The price gap has closed between 32-inch and 40/42-inch panels, which will contribute to higher consumer adoption rates of 40-inch and larger LCD TVs, says iSuppli.
A strong recovery in the desktop PC monitor market in the second and third quarters is expected to drive sales to 163.2 million units this year, up 14% year-over-year.
The notebook PC LCD panel market is expected to reach 99.6 million units in 2007 and 161.5 million units in 2011, driven by lower prices, the rise of wireless capabilities in portable computers and the shift to larger display sizes, says iSuppli.
BANNOCKBURN, IL – May rigid PCB shipments at North American fabricators fell 14.8%, while bookings dropped 12.2% from last year, according to the latest data from IPC.
The combined book-to-bill ratio remained just above parity at 1.01.
Shipments of all PCB types fell 14.5% compared to last year, and orders decreased 11.2%. Year to date, shipments are down 10.3%, and bookings are off 15.6%. Compared to the previous month, combined industry shipments are up 7.2%, and bookings are up 1.9%.
The book-to-bill for rigid PCBs dipped to 0.98. That means that for every $100 worth of boards sold, $98 worth were ordered. IPC says the ratio indicates rigid PCB sales over the next two to three months will likely continue at roughly the same level as in the first half of the year.
Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are down 10.9%, and bookings are down 17.7%. Sequentially, rigid shipments rose 6.7% and bookings increased 2.1%.
Flex circuit demand is on the rise, as the book-to-bill climbed to 1.32 in May. Shipments were down 10.1%, but bookings rose 2.9% year-over-year.
Year to date, flexible circuit shipments are up 0.7%, and bookings are up 23.8%. Shipments increased 15.7% over April, while bookings fell 0.4%.
TEMPE, AZ – "Following a weak first quarter, the manufacturing sector rebounded in a strong fashion during the second quarter.”
That’s according to Norbert J. Ore, chair of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. The trade group said June manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace since April 2006.
The May PMI was 56%, the institute reported. New orders were at 60.3%, up 0.7 of a point from the previous month. Production reached 62.9%, up 4.6 points from April. The backlog of orders was up one point, while customers’ inventories were down one point. The data showed inventories were contracting.
According to Ore, business is on strong footing. “This performance appears sustainable in the third quarter due to the current strength in new orders and production," he said.
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in June for the fifth consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 68th consecutive month, said ISM.
SAN FRANCISCO – The latest poll of the nation’s CIOs says IT budgets will grow 7.2% during the next year, up from 5.1% in March, says Deutsche Bank. The June poll results rebounded strongly, reversing four consecutive down quarters.
Spending projections improved for all but the largest companies, which DB believes bodes well for improving corporate spending in the second half of the year.
Results for small (101-500) and very small firms (1-100) strengthened in June, with CIOs expecting 11% and 9% growth in the next 12 months (vs. 10% and 2% in March), respectively. Medium firms (501-1,000) were optimistic, expecting 7% growth (vs. 4% in March), while large firms (1,001-5,000) and very large firms (>5,000) were less optimistic, with CIOs expecting 5% growth (vs. 3% and 7% in March, respectively), says the report.
Storage Systems was the top spending priority in the June Poll, with 54.1% of respondents planning to increase spending (vs. 46.3% in March). Security Software took the second spot with 41.6% of respondents planning to increase spending (vs. 43.5% previously), followed by Computer Hardware at 40.8% (vs. 45.5% previously).
Medium-size companies led results for Storage and Computer Hardware for the third consecutive quarter, with 78.6% (vs. 62.5% previously) predicting increased Storage budgets. In addition, Computer Hardware was also a priority for medium-size firms, with 60.0% (vs. 56.3% in March) of CIOs expecting increased spending.
Of the respondents to DB questions, 54.4% said they had implemented server virtualization, while 21.6% cited they were seriously considering it; 7.1%, 15% and 21.3% cited they had reduced server spending by roughly 50%, 30% and 10%, respectively. However, 15% cited they had not reduced server spending through virtualization.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – The market for Internet TV service will reach $5.8 billion in 2011, up 13.7 times from $422.7 million in 2006, iSuppli Corp. predicts.
The Web is quickly growing into the world’s largest on-demand, interactive video library. The Internet also is evolving into the most ubiquitous video distribution platform ever known, says the firm.
iSuppli notes that as more consumer electronic devices like TVs, DVD players, game consoles, iPods and portable gadgets become Web-connected, Internet TV will leap from computer screens into the consumer’s primary media environment: the living room TV.
With Internet TV, content owners face the trade-off of “reach” versus “control,” while video network operators face a new way to reach consumers, as well as a new competitive threat that could put pressure on their long-term position in the market.
Meanwhile, a variety of Internet portal companies, content delivery networks, software platform companies and other technology providers embrace the revenue opportunity, says the researcher.
iSuppli also found that while news was the largest revenue category for advertising supporting professionally generated Internet TV in 2006, it will be third by 2009, behind sports and entertainment. Also, bandwidth required for Internet TV will grow by more than 44 times from 2006 to 2011 to almost 7 million Tebibytes, the company says.
Internet TV will be dominated by North America and Western Europe, says iSuppli. Regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe will not have significant Internet TV penetration through 2011.
