Samsung Electronics raises forecasts for LCD shipments

Televisionpoint.com Team
Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest maker of liquid crystal displays, said that it has raised the shipment forecasts for the industry, citing higher-than-expected demand for panels used in televisions and computers.

The company said that global shipments of LCD panels sized at least 10 inches diagonally to rise 46 percent to 191 million units this year from 131 million last year, Chu Woo Sik, head of investor relations, said in an interview. Shipments for 2006 are expected to increase 24 percent to 236 million units, he said.

Flat-panel makers like Samsung and the industry leader, LG.Philips LCD, are building multibillion-dollar factories to expand production, betting that consumers will replace their bulkier glass-tube monitors and TVs with slimmer LCDs. In July, Samsung had forecast that 2005 shipments would rise to 179 million units, media reports inform.

Samsung raised its forecasts for TV panels by 10 percent to 22 million units. It increased its estimates for notebook panels by 5.3 percent to 60 million units and for desktop monitors by 7.1 percent to 105 million units, Chu said.