BEIJING, Aug. 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China’s leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting firm listed in Hong Kong (HKSE: HK08235), releases an analysis about how material technology bottleneck restricts the competitiveness of China’s flat panel display industry.
Flat panel display has become the mainstream in the display industry. Among the flat panel display, LCD, PDP and OLED are widely used. Among them, LCD has the biggest percentage. CCID Consulting data show that TFT-LCD display devices now account for most market shares. Display dimension is also expanding continuously. TFT-LCD already accounts for over 90% of the revenues in the whole LCD industry. TFT-LCD is also dominated by displays over 14 inches, which account for over 70%.
Currently, the global display industry is mainly concentrated in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan of China. In the Chinese mainland, only BOE and SVA have fifth-generation TFT-LCD product lines to make batch production. But, most of their key technologies rely on Japan and South Korea. In 2006, competition was very intense in the TFT-LCD market. In addition to price fluctuations, the key to TFT-LCD enterprises’ profitability still laid in cost. Raw materials account for the biggest percentage, at some 60%-70%, of cost and are the most elastic components. The TFT-LCD industry chain includes 3 parts -- thin film transistor LCD-use materials at the upstream, panel and components at the middle reaches and electronic products at the downstream. The main constituent materials and components of TFT-LCD include liquid crystal materials, color filter, glass-based plate, polarizer, back light module, driving IC, PCB, consumables as well as some chemicals (such as high purity agents, photoresist and so on) used in the production process. China’s downstream electronic product market is huge in size and has great development potential. But the upstream material industry notably lags behind. Key materials completely rely on imports. The whole industry chain is notably imbalanced.
Currently, there are mainly 3 liquid crystal material firms in the world: Merck in Germany, Chisso and Rodic in Japan. Glass-based plate supplies are basically controlled by several major companies, including Corning, Asahi Glass, Nippon Electric Glass and NHT. The global polaroid market is mainly monopolized by 4 Japanese companies, Nippon Denko, Santachi, Sumitomo Chemical and Polatechno.
Enterprises on the Chinese mainland can only make TN and STN liquid crystal materials. High-class TFT liquid crystal materials fully rely on imports. China does not have industrialized ability for the making of LCD-use glass base plates yet. The result is that conductive glass makers also need to import raw materials from abroad. Shenzhen Laibao Hi-Tech Co., Ltd. and CSG Holding Co., Ltd. can provide a few color filters. But these are only limited to STN and small-size TFT color filters. Polarizer production in China is still mainly dominated by low-class TN. High-class TFT-CLD-use polarizers with high production values and higher profits still basically rely on imports.
CCID Consulting contends that while the TFT-LCD industry in the Chinese mainland is relatively backward, it nevertheless has a huge downstream user market. As Chinese enterprises speed up their introduction and adaptation of advanced technologies from abroad, the technological gap is being gradually narrowed. Currently, there are mainly 2 technical bottlenecks that restrict China’s flat panel display industry: key materials and equipment. With their current technical ability and industry development, Chinese enterprises do not have the ability to compete with international giants in the equipment market. But, in the material field, breakthroughs may be made. It can be seen from the above analysis that TFT-LCD material makers in China are seriously lagging behind. The country basically relies on import for the key materials for making TFT-LCD. This is not good for the benign development of China’s liquid crystal industry chain. The State therefore needs to step up support for key materials. Relevant enterprises and research institutes should also increase R&D input, make technological breakthroughs, encourage rapid industrialization and the formation of an industry chain with coordination among the upstream, middle stream and downstream.
About CCID Consulting
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd. (also known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is a direct affiliate of the China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts. The Company’s business scope has covered over 200 large- and medium-sized cities in China. Apart from home market development, CCID Consulting is establishing international cooperation links across the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, by setting up agents in the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Italy and Russia, with the aim of going global.
Based on four major competitive areas of powerful data channels, industrial resources, intense knowledge and deep understanding of information technology, CCID Consulting provides customers with consulting, research and IT outsourcing services covering strategy planning, IT application, marketing strategy, human resources and information technology outsourcing. Our customers range from industrial users in IT, telecommunications, energy, finance, automobile, to government departments at all levels and diversified industrial parks.
CCID Consulting is committed to becoming the No. 1 brand for strategy consulting, the No. 1 consultant for enterprise management and the No. 1 expert in market research. For more information, please visit our website at http://en.ccidconsulting.com/ .
For more information, please contact:
Cynthia Liu
Coordinating Manager
CCID Consulting Co., Ltd.
Tel: +86-10-8855-9080
Email: liuyan@ccidconsulting.com
