One of this year's every three LCD TVs is expected to be produced through outsourced production. According to "LCD TV Outsourcing Production Industry Analysis and Forecast " report recently issued by a display market research specialist, Displaybank (CEO Sang-se Kwon, www.displaybank.com), the quantity of LCD TV outsourcing production accounted for 29% of the global LCD TV market with 59.5 million units. This year, one of every three LCD TVs is expected to be outsourced, which is 32.5%.

Since outsourcing production has advantages in △ fixed costs △ investment △ R&D cost savings △ risk reduction of component/material supply and demand △ efficiency in inventory management and so forth, many TV makers are expected to expand their outsourcing production ratio of LCD TV. For instance, Sony significantly decreased the fixed costs by diminishing the number of TV production plants which the company has operated so far from 12 to 4 through the restructuring of TV business. Recently, the company has announced a plan to divide their TV division into LCD TV division, next-generation TV division, and outsourcing division. 

In addition, a panel accounts for the largest cost portion (based on 32", 52%) in LCD TV, in terms of adopting the outsourcing production, the risk caused by the panel price fluctuations can be offset to some degree, there is an advantage of inventory management.

As a result, TV makers are predicted to expand the outsourcing production ratio for the improvement of their profits. As for representative LCD TV outsourced makers, there are Taiwan-based TPV, Wistron, and Compal, China-based Foxconn, as Europe-based Vestel. TPV ranks top based on the robust customer relationships and the experience of the monitor outsourced production, Foxconn is becoming a top-tier outsourced maker rapidly through the combination with the ability of strong value chain integration. And Vestel is expanding its market share based on the local TV brand customers all over Europe.

Most outsourcing production companies are planning aggressive business plans this year. On top of that, since Japan-based giant TV makers such as Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and etc. are also building the strategy to expand their outsourcing production, there will be a positive effect on the industry. Displaybank predicts that the outsourcing production ratio of LCD TV will be expanded to 47% in 2015.