Online TV sales during the Double 12 (December 12) shopping festival in China were lower than expected despite easing COVID restrictive measures. Double 12 is a sales day cut from the same cloth as Singles' Day (November 11) in China or Black Friday in the West.
According to data compiled by China-based All View Cloud (AVC), sales volume and value recorded on Double 12 showed declines compared to a year earlier.
Online TV sales during Double 12 totaled 1.32 million units, down 8.2% from a year ago, while the sales value declined 15.8% to CNY3.13 billion (US$438.2 million).
Market sources attributed the declines to weakening consumer spending as a result of a spike in COVID infection cases.
At the same time, the ASP of TVs sold during Double 12 stood at CNY2,371, a decline of 11.5% compared to that of Singles' Day a month earlier.
Shipments of gaming TVs accounted for 20% of unit sales and 39% of the sales value of total TVs sold during Double 12, with 75-inch models making up over 50% of the gaming TV sales, said AVC.
Meanwhile, James Yang, president of Taiwan-based panel maker Innolux, said that capacity utilization at its plant in China has been affected recently by a spread of COVID, with 35% of its employees there infected.
Innolux has ramped up the backend production capacity at its plant in Taiwan to sustain its overall production. Yang expects the backend capacity utilization rate at its Taiwan facilities to rise to 80-85% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 65% currently.
Fellow company AU Optronics (AUO) expects its utilization rate to stand at around 60-70% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
