Plasma TV has overtake LCD TVs? It is too early!

A few days ago, statistics from the China Electronic Video Industry Association showed that from January to June 2011, China’s LCD TV production increased by 16.6% year-on-year, plasma TV production increased by 45.7% year-on-year, and another data from Ovid Consulting showed that In the first half of the year, the sales volume of LCD TV retail market grew by 7.8% year-on-year, while the sales of plasma TVs increased by 29.2% year-on-year. For the first time in five years, the growth rate of plasma TVs surpassed that of LCDs. This has led many companies to shout "LCD is declining and plasma is rising." However, there are also industry insiders who call for calm. In terms of total production and sales volume, the plasma that accounts for only about 7% of the domestic flat-panel TVs is still far from being able to compete with LCDs. LCD TVs are still the mainstream.

3D brings new opportunities for plasma

It's no wonder that the industry has a cry for "plasma spring is coming." Before entering this wave of rapid growth, the plasma market has experienced a low tide for several years. At that time, with the popularity of LCD TV technology, the price gradually decreased. Under the pressure of LCD TV price cuts, plasma space was compressed. Pioneer, Hitachi and other early plasma large families successively withdrew from plasma panel production. Samsung and LG also gave up new investment plans for plasma panels. Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes also sold plasma business. Domestic manufacturers, including TCL, Hisense, and Konka, all withdrew from the plasma TV camp, and the plasma once “had gone.”

Since last year, the all-round arrival of the 3D era has brought tremendous opportunities for the development of the plasma market. Because plasma is more suitable for manufacturing large-screen TVs than LCDs in terms of technology and manufacturing processes, and the current cost of plasma TVs of the same size and configuration is nearly 10% lower than that of LCD TVs, with absolute technical advantages and costs in the 3D field. Advantages, plasma market development shows strong advantages. In addition, the increase in the price of LCD panels has also led to a shift in the production of some 3D products to plasma TVs.

Changhong, Panasonic and other old plasma companies have risen high. Changhong even announced that it will start all 3D plasma TVs in June this year. It will first propose the complete elimination of 2D TVs. Matsushita will build a plasma screen production line in Shanghai. Samsung also started last year. Expansion of production capacity. Many color TV manufacturers that originally evacuated the plasma TV camp, such as Hisense, Konka, TCL, etc., also began to relaunch plasma products.

Plasma has entered the fast lane of market penetration

Judging from the current situation of domestic color TV companies, some raw materials for LCD panel production still require a large amount of overseas imports. However, plasma has a relatively complete industrial chain, from nine key raw materials such as glass powder and phosphors, to dedicated ICs. Filters, power supplies, metal backplanes and other devices and components have begun to enter local production. In terms of industrial structure, plasma does have relative cost and technological advantages.

Changhong, which has been adhering to the plasma, first broke through the "screen" neck of domestic TV. As early as 2004, it began to arrange plasma panel projects. After last year's mass production, this year's 42-inch high-definition, full-HD 3D plasma display has been mass-produced. The yield rate exceeds 92%, and the single-day yield rate exceeds 95%, which is equivalent to that of Samsung and Panasonic.

Luo Qingqi, a senior director of Pall Consulting, believes that since the Changhong plasma screen production line has broken the history of Japan and South Korea’s monopolistic display, flat-panel TVs may have a price reduction of 20%-30% at the same time as large-screen TVs in the 1990s, which will promote plasma TV entered the fast lane of the market.

According to industry insiders, with the continuous improvement of the domestic plasma industry chain, the Chinese market may become an important strategic base for the development of the international plasma industry. According to the latest information, the size of the Chinese plasma market in 2011 was 2.9 million units, and the proportion in the global scale of 19.7 million units increased.

The mainstream status of LCD is still difficult to shake

Although the production and sales growth rate of plasma TVs surpasses LCD TVs, it should be noted that currently, plasma accounts for only 7% of China’s flat-panel TVs. Statistics from the China Electronics Video Industry Association show that from January to June 2011, China’s color TV output was 53.15 million units, of which LCD TV production was 44.8 million units, an increase of 16.6% year-on-year, and plasma TVs increased by 45.7% year-on-year, but The output was only 1.53 million units. Ovid Consulting's data also showed that in the first half of this year, the cumulative sales volume of the domestic color TV retail market reached 19.37 million units, completing 46.3% of the full-year forecast, of which the cumulative sales volume of LCD TVs was 16.921 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%, while the plasma TVs increased by 29.2% year-on-year. However, the cumulative sales volume was only 1.15 million units.

Liu Buchen, a senior observer of the household appliances industry, said on microblogs, “Who represents the mainstream of the industry and sees it at a glance.” He said that 3D TV is an opportunity for plasma, but this opportunity also enjoys LCD. Plasma camp companies want to walk on two legs. Judging from the current market situation, only LCD TVs can support the main sales companies.