Market Trend

According to the latest survey by WitsView, a research division of TrendForce, the MCI index plummeted by 389.8 points to 5361.4 between May 03, 2011 to June 13, 2011. As global markets were adversely affected by the credits risks in the European and US markets, along with the jump in oil prices, the consumer purchasing power grew weaker during the start of 2Q11. In terms of the panel makers, as prices for some panel size segments bottomed out in 1Q11, coupled by the fact that the end market sales during the Chinese Labor Day holidays had met expectations, it encouraged panel makers to raise their respective utilization rates in preparation for the traditional hot seasonality in the third quarter. Nevertheless, markets remain weighed by negative economic news and inflationary problems, which has continued to drag down the willingness of consumers to spend. This subsequently has led to an increase in the inventory for both panel makers and downstream brand vendors. As a result, there is still some difficulty for the current panel prices to rise more notably. Regarding the future outlook, if the aforementioned inventory is not effectively cleared away, and sales during 3Q11 is weaker than expected, chances will be slim to see the panel prices reaching a notably higher level. Given these negative factors, it triggered the MCI index to slump by nearly 400 points.