According to TrendForce division WitsView, global TV shipments only declined "slightly" in 2019 by -0.9%, reaching 217.8 million units, but the ongoing coronavirus (aka Covid-19) pandemic should further affect the industry in 2020.
The pandemic has lead to stock and financial markets crashing, leading to significant damage to the confidence of consumers in the face of the economy. As a result, consumption of non-essential products has become more conservative. One such non-essential product is TVs, and shipments are set to drop by -5.8% in 2020 to 205.2m units. Further hurting the market is the postponing of major sports events, including the UEFA EURO 2020 and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The analyst adds global TV shipments total 44.6m units in Q1 2020, a -8.6% drop from pre-coronavirus predictions of 48.8m units. Good part of such decline comes from China, but Q2 2020 will see effect of the pandemic on the rest of the market. As a result, TrendForce has revised its forecast for the quarter from 47.6m units to 44.1m, a -7.3% decline. For the near future brands whose European shipment portion exceeds 30%, such as Samsung, LG, Sony and Philips, might be counted among the victims of the pandemic.
The coronavirus outbreak will also lead to a reduction reaching -8-10% of panel shipments to vendors, even if TrendForce products supply should eventually recover to pre-pandemic levels by end 2020.
