Taipei, Nov. 3, 2008 (CENS)--Though the global economy slowed clearly in the past two months, shipments of large-sized (over-10-inch) thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels reached 40.2 million units in September, up 3.5% from previous month and an 8.4% increase from a year earlier, according to statistics released by Displaybank.

DisplayBank, a global leader in electronic-display market research, said that the September large-sized TFT-LCD panel shipments was an increase for two months in a raw but still less than that in May, which reached 41.4 million units and was the highest monthly volume in this year.

Monitor and notebook PC panel shipments only increased 1.8% and 3.6%, respectively, from previous month, DisplayBank said, LCD TV panel enjoyed a monthly increase of about 6.8%. The market research firm attributed the shipment increase to major LCD TV maker`s recovering order-placing for upgrading their panel stocks to the normal level and for the preparation for the high sales season in the end of the year.

LG Display (formerly LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd.) won the first place in shipments (the first time in seven months) in September by accounting for 22.2% of the global shipments thanks to clearly increased shipments of TV and notebook PC panels.

Samsung Electronics closely followed LGD with a 21.6% shipment share. Taiwan-based AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO) took 17.0% and 16.0%, respectively.

DisplayBank said that the rank shifts reflected the impact generated from that some major brand TV makers turned their panel purchases from the Taiwanese makers to in-house purchase due to cost concerns.

Statistics compiled by DisplayBank also showed that Full High-Definition (Full-HD, or 1080p) LCD TV panels has been gaining a expanding market share, which reached 34.5% of total shipments in September, a nearly doubled percentage points compared to a year earlier (18.1%).

In terms of shipment proportion by panel size, 40-inch and higher application products won a share of over-70%, while 32-inch Full-HD panels also increased to win a 9.2% share.

(by Quincy Liang)