Dwindling demand for LCD TVs has forced Samsung to suspend the purchase of LCD panels, according to a report by The Elec.

While demand for OLED TVs continues to rise, the overall TV market is still made up primarily of LCD TVs and this segment is hit harder by the slowing demand after the covid-19 sales boom. Samsung has only a single OLED TV model available – the rest are all LCD-based.

After shipping 50 million TVs last year, Samsung had originally planned to procure 53-54 million TV panels for 2022. The estimate was later reduced to 44 million and has now been revised down further to 40 million, according to The Elec.


 Samsung's "QLED TVs" all use LCD panels

As a result Samsung in mid-June informed its LCD TV panel suppliers BOE, CSoT (TCL), HKC, AU Optronics and Innolux that it will suspend purchases until the end of July in an effort to bring down inventory levels. The halt may last longer, sources said.

Samsung Display terminated in-house production of LCD TV panels in June.

TV makers such as LG, TCL and Sony have also revised down their shipment targets for 2022, according to the report, but apparently not halted purchases of LCD panels at this time.

In May, Omdia said that OLED TV shipments are expected to increase 23% to 8 million units in 2022. LCD TV sales are expected to reach a little over 200 million units.

- Source: The Elec