In the second quarter of this year, the global supply gap of display driver IC exceeded 50%. However, according to the market report, the current supply has reached 80% of customer demand, and the driver IC shortage will ease further next year. In the past year, a shortage of various IC products due to tight silicon chip supply has hurt the display driver chip market. Since the second half of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has boosted the stay-at-home economy, leading to an explosion in demand for consumer electronics like laptops. At the same time, 5G, servers, data centers, electric vehicles and other industries are booming. As a result, the supply of display-driven ics became tight and the industry experienced a severe shortage.
At present, the supply of driving IC is still insufficient, with the decline of application equipment market demand, LCD panel prices have declined to varying degrees. The price of various display driver chips fluctuates with supply and demand.
The global supply-demand ratio for display driver chips is expected to turn positive in the first quarter of 2022 as fabs in China and Taiwan add new wafer capacity, according to industry research firm Sigmaintell Consulting. The supply-demand ratio is forecast to rise from -4.4 per cent to 2.7 per cent for the whole of next year.
While supply shortages have eased, seasonal fluctuations and structural risks remain. Sigmaintell predicts that the supply-demand ratio for display-driven ics will stabilize to a tight balance in the second half of 2022 as inventories build during the consumer electronics season.