For its display business, Samsung said Tuesday that LCD panel prices fell more than expected due to an expansion in capacity from Chinese competitors while demand from large-scale buyers of its flexible OLED display screens, which are typically used in high-end smartphones, also declined.
Mehdi Hosseini, senior equity research analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, wrote in a Monday note that weak smartphone industry demand was pressuring Samsung’s display business unit, particularly OLED panels.
OLED panels make colors “pop” more than on a traditional LCD panel, which means photos, videos and games can look much more true to life.
“In fact, our checks suggest Apple has dramatically cut back on the purchase of ‘flexible’ OLED panels, as they try to keep channel inventory to a minimum,” Hosseini said. Samsung is a major OLED screen supplier to the iPhone maker.
He added that he expects Samsung’s display revenue to decline around 50 percent on-quarter, worse than previous expectations of a 30-40 percent drop. Still, a bright spot for Samsung is its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S10, which is on track to ship up to 12 million units in the three months to March and forecast to ship another 10-12 million units between April and June, according to Hosseini.
“We expected OLED display shipments to increase into the June quarter, but the magnitude is still tracking below prior expectations,” he said.
Samsung shares slid 0.88 percent in morning trade, falling behind the broader Kospi index which was in positive territory on Tuesday morning.
— CNBC’s Chery Kang contributed to this report.
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