Introduction:
The LED Display Market is Stable
Expansion of the Display Driver Chip Market
The upstream chip link is an important part of the LED display industry chain. Benefiting from the rapid development of the display panel industry, the global display driver chip market continues to expand, and the Chinese market has also become the main market for global display driver chip. The “2024-2029 China Display Driver Chip Industry Market Prospect Forecast and Future Development Trend Research Report” released by the China Business Industry Research Institute shows that the market size of China’s display driver chip will reach about 41.6 billion yuan in 2023, and it is predicted that the market size of China’s display driver chip will reach 44.5 billion yuan in 2024.
LED Chip Market Stability Amid Price Fluctuations
Changes in the upstream market also have a certain impact on downstream endpoints. In mid-May last year, due to the impact of rising raw material prices in the upstream, more than 20 LED end point related companies in the LED display industry adjusted their product prices upward by 5% -20%, resulting in an average price increase of 6.6% in the small-pitch LED display market in the second quarter of 2023. According to the analysis of relevant institutions, from the perspective of this year’s situation, other LED display packaging manufacturers have not increased prices for the time being, but considering the decline in corporate profits, it is expected to follow up with price increases.
LED Chip Market Forecast: Market Demand and Industry Outlook
From the overall situation, although the price of LED chips fluctuates to a certain extent every year, from an objective point of view, it still depends on whether some manufacturers actively reduce prices or passively reduce prices. Such small fluctuations do not appear to have any impact on the stability of the LED chip market at all. And in the future, the continued expansion of LED chips will further expand market share, which is not only good news for LED display upstream companies, but also a good thing for the entire LED display industry.
Positive Outlook for the LED Display Industry
Overall, with market demand picking up in the first half of 2024, LED display companies will soon return to a good operating state. The national “double carbon” strategy, domestic and foreign energy conservation and emission reduction policies, and the theme of green economy remain unchanged. The LED industry will continue to maintain good development opportunities, and the degree of cross-border integration with the Internet of Things, new displays, and virtual shooting will also increase day by day. The LED product structure will continue to be optimized, the demand for sub-segments will continue to grow, and the space for industry innovation and market space will be vast.
Mini/Micro LED Display Market Continues to Grow
China’s Policy Support for Advancements in Mini/Micro LED
At present, our country’s government attaches great importance to the development of new display technologies such as Mini/Micro LED, and has issued a series of policies and guidance, such as the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting Future Industrial Innovation and Development”, which clearly mentions the need to break through Micro LED technology, and formulated the development goal of 2025-2027. At the same time, the “Action Plan for Steady Growth of Electronic Information Manufacturing 2023-2024”, “Advanced Level of Energy Efficiency, Energy Conservation Level and Access Level of Key Energy-using Products and Equipment (2022 Edition) ” and other policies have provided financial, technical and other support for the Micro LED industry.
Mini LED: Achieving Mass Production
Since 2021, Mini LED technology has taken the lead in the field of backlight products to achieve mass production. In the two years of entering the road of large-scale development, Mini LED has gone through technical path exploration, difficulty overcoming, multi-dimensional cost reduction and efficiency enhancement and other development links. By 2023, the competitive advantage of Mini LED backlight products has been further highlighted, and the application scene pattern has basically formed. In the high-end display market, the competition between Mini LED backlight products and OLED is fierce. At the same time, with more flexible and cost-effective technology solutions, it has accelerated its penetration into the low-end market to achieve the replacement of LCD inventory. Data show that in 2023, the overall shipment of Mini LED backlight products is about 12.59 million units, of which TVs, monitors, and vehicles are the main growth markets.
Major Breakthroughs in Micro LED Technology
On the other hand, with the continuous increase of research and development efforts, Micro LED technology has made major breakthroughs in the technical direction of high PPI, transparency, curved surface, narrow frame, etc., and has industry-leading technical capabilities. With the continuous maturation of technology and the integration of the industrial chain, the production cost of Micro LED products has gradually decreased, providing strong support for marketing activities. For example, by using smaller chip area and mass transfer technology, the overall average unit pixel cost has been reduced, making Micro LED products more competitive.
Revolutionary Changes and Future Prospects
In 2024, Mini/Micro LED, as an outstanding representative of the new generation of display technology, leads the revolutionary change of display technology, and shows great application potential in intelligent manufacturing, virtual reality, augmented reality and other fields. It is worth noting that in the Mini/Micro LED industry chain, chip link enterprises are relatively concentrated. Under the demand of market growth, related enterprises are actively expanding production capacity. Packaging and module links are relatively mature, and the degree of overlap between enterprises is relatively high. Among them, Mini LED backlight modules have been mass-produced and applied on a large scale, and there are many enterprises entering the market. The industry is in a period of rapid growth.
LED Display Market Differentiation Strategy Will Be the Mainstream
LED display industry economic growth linked to policies. Slowing global economic growth and diminishing policy dividends, especially in the commercial display sector. Industrial stage has passed the general dividend increase period. Move from the elevator stage to the weight-bearing climbing and rock climbing mode. Most products are gradually improving, and there is a dip in end-point demand projects and product line projects this year, leading to price wars.
However, with the new policy dividends such as “new quality productivity”, “super long-term special government bonds” and “implementation plan to promote equipment renewal in the field of culture and tourism”, the driving force for LED displays will be significantly enhanced.
LED Display Companies: Focus on Technology and Branding for
Looking forward to 2024, after four years of market volatility and slow recovery, more and more companies have deeply realized that they can no longer hope to “wait” for the return of market dividends, rely on strong downstream demand and high market prices to drive corporate profits, but should take the initiative. On the one hand, take the initiative to adjust the product structure and seize the growth opportunities in the structural adjustment of the market. On the other hand, LED display companies have also noticed that if they want to develop in the industrial environment with accelerated competition in the global market, branding is the only way. Differentiated technological and product innovation capabilities and a mature supply chain system can enhance their competitiveness in the red ocean market.
Conclusion
In 2024, the US dollar interest rate hike cycle is expected to end, and large-scale sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the European Cup will be held at the same time, stimulating the recovery of global commerce, tourism, commerce, entertainment, retail, hotels and other consumer formats. LED display application scenarios will be activated again. We also look forward to the performance of LED displays in the second half of the year.