A wave of price hikes for display panels is rolling in—not as a forecast, but as an established fact.
More importantly, starting this month, prices of TV, MNT (monitor) and NB (notebook) panels have risen in unison for the first time since 2024.
In past industry cycles, a price increase in a single category often signaled short-term supply-demand fluctuations. However, synchronized gains across all segments typically indicate that the industry cycle has entered an upward trajectory.
According to TrendForce data, TV panel prices have risen for three consecutive months with expanding margins; monitor panel prices, long stable, have also started increasing with growing gains; and notebook panel prices, which had been declining, have stabilized and rebounded.
The collective price rise across all panel categories clearly shows that an upward price trend has become a market consensus.
This trend stems from a confluence of multiple factors along the display panel supply chain:
1. Tsunami of Raw Material Price Hikes Overwhelm Panel Makers
The industrial chain has faced a cascade of headwinds recently. Memory chips have borne the brunt: DDR5 DRAM prices have tripled in half a year, and NAND flash prices have surged more than 200%. Key ICs including display driver ICs (DDIC) and power management ICs have risen 10%–30% due to upstream fab production cuts and photoresist shortages, with lead times for some models extended from 8 weeks to 16 weeks.
More critically, the disruption of oil shipments amid tensions in the Strait of Hormuz has caused shortages of plastic particles—vital materials for panel housings and backlight modules—sending their prices soaring roughly 40% in a single month. And these price increases are far from over.
Most of these cost pressures are currently being absorbed by panel manufacturers. But combined, they have become an unsustainable burden.
Coupled with unstable material supplies threatening delivery reliability, price increases have become inevitable.
2. Production Capacity Hits Ceiling, Competitive Intensity Eases
This round of price increases is underpinned by unusually firm supply-side conditions.
Since 2025, global new capacity for mid-to-large sized LCD panels has been nearly zero. New lines such as TM19 and T9 have completed ramp-up and entered stable mass production, meaning panel capacity has effectively hit its ceiling. This has directly reduced industry competition.
In previous years, panel makers often engaged in price wars to ramp up new lines quickly or defend market share through “price for volume” strategies.
Today, the TV market has embraced production discipline based on actual demand, while the monitor market has shifted from oversupply to tight balance. Panel makers finally have the leverage to escape destructive price competition.
TrendForce projects global TV panel shipments will rise 5% quarter-on-quarter in Q2, while supply will increase only 2%. This widening supply-demand gap will further drive prices higher.
3. Strong Downstream Strategic Demand
Although real market demand faces mixed signals—boosted by major sporting events but weighed down by geopolitical conflicts, frequent wars and macroeconomic uncertainty—downstream manufacturers are showing strong strategic demand.
Strategic demand refers to procurement driven by brands pursuing their business and market objectives.
While aligned with long-term real demand, it can deviate in the short term, especially during supply shortages.
Such strategic demand includes:
- TCL aiming to challenge for the top spot in the global TV market alongside Sony;
- Samsung adjusting strategies to defend its No.1 position;
- Hisense and Skyworth refusing to let their competitive gaps widen;
- TCL aggressively expanding into the monitor market.
These strategies are prompting accelerated procurement to secure scarce resources and fulfill strategic goals.
Based on current trends, the display panel price rally is only just beginning.
Amid this sweeping price surge, the top priority is to secure material supplies and avoid the dilemma of “having capacity but no output” or “facing higher prices but no profit”.
Source: Weiken Network (VC Network)
