The second wave of driver IC price increases by as much as 30%, Samsung increases the price of rigid OLED panels by 5%-8%

LCD website official micro yesterday

March 17, according to foreign media reports, the chip foundry capacity constraints, can not meet the strong demand of the foundry, automotive, smart phone at the chip supply in many fields such as processors, are relatively tight, the scope is constantly expand. The latest news shows that the LCD and OLED panel industries are already facing the problem of the supply of display driver chips.

According to a report by the Securities Times , since the first half of this year, Taiwanese upstream wafer foundries have successively reduced the amount of LCD driver IC investment, which has led to the second wave of price increases by Taiwanese LCD driver IC suppliers, directly starting from 20%. Starting at a maximum of 30% or more, Taiwanese LCD driver IC designers are expected to set a new high record for the first quarter gross profit margin in the past 10 years. The industry's preliminary estimate does not rule out that the second quarter will continue to rise.

According to the report, the supply of LCD panel display driver chips is currently unable to keep up with market demand, and many manufacturers are considering increasing prices. The reason is that the orders of LCD panel manufacturers are increasing, and the demand for display driver chips is also increasing, and the supply is at least 20% lower than the demand.

The report pointed out that if LCD display driver chip suppliers increase prices, it will trigger a chain reaction, pushing up the price of LCD panels, which in turn pushes up the prices of various equipment, or reduces the profit margins of downstream manufacturers.

In fact, not only is the supply of display driver chips for LCD panels in short supply, but similar problems have also appeared in OLED panels, and Samsung's rigid OLED panels have been affected.

Citing information disclosed by industry chain sources, Samsung’s rigid OLED panels are facing problems with the supply of display driver chips. Due to the tight supply of display driver chips, Samsung has increased the price of rigid OLED panels by 5%-8%.

The source also said that Samsung's tight supply of display driver chips is related to the shutdown of its chip factory in Austin. In mid-February, affected by a large-scale blackout caused by the winter storm, Samsung and many other companies stopped production at their chip factories in Austin, and Samsung's factories have not yet recovered. Before the shutdown, this factory could produce 20,000 wafers of display driver cores per month.

Source: Securities Times, TechWeb, China LCD Network