Combined TV set shipments of the six major China TV brands – Changhong, Hisense, Haier, Konka, Skyworth and TCL – will total 58.43 million in 2015, according to WitsView. The year's estimated annual shipments from these six vendors represent a 2.7% increase compared with the 56.91 million sets shipped in 2014. Demand saturation and growing popularity of emerging Internet brands are adding to the challenges that China vendors will face in their domestic market during the upcoming holiday sales events. Vendors' main source of growth will therefore be based on their expansion and development of overseas markets.
WitsView estimates that the six major China brands will ship a total of 15.68 million TV sets in the third quarter of 2015, showing an on-year increase of 0.4%. This result is much lower than earlier projections mainly because second-quarter sales fell below expectations and retailers are holding excess inventories. Hence, TV vendors are now less willing to release additional shipments. Moreover, the share of the annual sales that comes from the important China holiday events is diminishing, so vendors have a more conservative view toward Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day TV sales. This downbeat outlook is also reflected in retailers' stock-up demand. Though the TV panel market is seeing greater price declines for the third quarter, China TV vendors are too late to stimulate the market with lower priced TV sets.
The overall performance of the major China brands was below expectations in the third quarter, but TCL, Hisense and Skyworth have emerged as clear leaders in their domestic market. TCL and Skyworth have made alliances with panel makers an important part of their strategies because of the fierce competition. TCL is supported by its subsidiary panel supplier, CSOT (China Star Optoelectronics Technology), while Skyworth has developed a close relationship with LG Display. Hisense, by contrast, distributes its panel orders among different suppliers. Moreover, Hisense has been actively acquiring foreign TV brands to expand its export sales operation and raise the sales volume of its branded products overseas.
Traditionally, third-quarter TV shipments are an important indicator of China retailers' stock-up demand for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. Since third-quarter 2015 shipments have slowed for some China TV brands, sales results from the two festivals may be weaker compared with results from a year ago. In sum, WitsView estimates that TV sales during 2015's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day will drop 4-5% on year.
Article translated by Alex Wolfgram
