According to the Nikkei Network reported on June 17, the demand for PC is shrinking and the smart phone market is close to saturation, so the electronic component market is in a downturn. At the same time, manufacturers in China are still increasing their exports, further lowering the price of goods and squeezing the share of competitors. China’s upstream parts manufacturers, on the other hand, strive for high-end products and seek new growth opportunities.
In an office building in Tokyo, an employee is staring at a 110-inch, more than two meters wide 8 k TV screen, which has a resolution of about 16 times that of a full HD screen. The manufacturer comes from China’s largest LCD panel manufacturer — — BOE Technology Group, not a world-renowned panel maker such as Samsung Electronics or Sharp.
BOE Japan has closed one deal after another since it opened the "8 k Salon" in January 2015, according to HIS data. In 2015, China’s LCD panel production capacity may increase by 4 percentage points to 18% in the global market, with BOE, Huaxing Optoelectronics and tianma microelectronics making the greatest contributions. By 2018, Chinese mainland will surpass Taiwan Province to occupy 29% of the global panel market, which will push South Korea to be the first in the global panel market with 36%.
IHS data
China manufacturers continuously increased their production and export sales, which depressed the panel price. The wholesale price of 32-inch perforated LCD panels (semi-finished products without backlight) dropped by 30% in 2015. At the same time, the prices of panels of other sizes also dropped, which greatly hit the profitability of panel manufacturers in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan Province.
However, China manufacturers have no idea of convergence control. They continue to pursue 50-inch or even larger panels, and at the same time increase the production of TV monitors supporting 4 k and 8 k video playback.
In December last year, BOE Hefei LCD panel production base started construction, which will cost about 6 billion US dollars, mainly to increase the production capacity of its 65-inch and above large-size panels. Zhang Zhaohong, president of Jingdong Group’s display business, said that the company will continue to promote 8K products.
With the increase of output, the price of large-size panels of 55 inches and above will inevitably decrease. China enterprises began to turn to more promising next-generation electronic equipment.
This spring, in Akihabara Electronic Products Shopping Center in Tokyo, more and more "Made in China" labels appeared in computer accessories such as mobile hard disks. A 240GB SSD costs 5700 yen, which is lower than the wholesale price of similar products made in Korea and the United States.
Samsung Electronics and Toshiba have mainly developed so-called 3 d memory chips so far. A new type of NAND flash memory greatly expands the storage capacity to high-capacity ssd, which can significantly reduce the cost. XMC, a chip manufacturer located in Wuhan, may jointly develop 3 d NAND flash memory products with the United States.
Samsung Electronics and Toshiba’s 3D memory chips have been in the leading position so far, and their new NAND flash memory technology can greatly increase the storage capacity and significantly reduce the cost of high-capacity hard disks. And a new product manufacturer headquartered in Wuhan, China — — XMC, it is said, has been developing 3D NAND products together with American flash memory manufacturers.
Chip technology is developing, and manufacturers in developed countries still maintain their advantages, but they may change at any time.