Taipei, July 2, 2009 (CENS)--Shipments by global top-10 contract LCD monitor makers in May declined 4.8% month-on-month (MoM) to 12.3 million units, while that of the top-10 vendors dropped 3.4% MoM to 10.01 million, according to WitsView Technology Corp., a LCD market research firm.

The firm attributed the sales decline to multiple reasons, including decreased end-market demand, conservative inventory policy held by distributors, and supply shortage of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels.

The research firm, however, forecast a 7.6% MoM shipment growth in June, when monitor distributors in mainland China kicked off summer promotions while those in Europe and the U.S. began refilling inventories for the back-to-school peak in September.

The LCD monitor shipments terminated a continual MoM growth from January this year in May due mainly to, WitsView said, the off-season effects and the supply shortage of need panels.

LG was the most eye-catching player among the top-10 monitor vendors by posting an 18.7% MoM growth, which was due mainly to smooth sales in emerging markets. Dell`s shipments and market share, however, continued to drop.

After shipment declines in the past straight quarters, monitor shipments returned to a growth trend in the second quarter. WitsView forecasted that in the second quarter the global top-10 contract manufacturers would ship about 34 million units, a 10% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase.

Vendors have been actively cutting their prices for upgrading first-half sales volumes and pre-promoting their new products for the second-half sales peak. So, WitsView predicted that shipments by top-10 monitor vendors would reach 31 million units, a 13.1% QoQ growth.


(by Quincy Liang)