ITIS's report shows that, with price uptrend stalled and shipment declining, the production value of large-sized display panels declined by 3.4% to NT$228.65 billion (US$7.14 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2009 from a quarter earlier.

However, as demand of downstream manufacturers of monitors, notebook PCs and TVs has turned increasingly strong and hence caused prices to rise since this January, production value of such models is very likely to rebound in the first quarter, ITIS's analysts indicate.

Coincidentally, overall production value of small- and medium-sized display panels also shrank by 32.4% quarterly to only NT$30.39 billion (US$949.68 million) in the fourth quarter of 2009 due mainly to a seasonal recession, and that of TN/STN (twisted nematic/super-twisted nematic) models slipped around 10% to NT$6.28 billion (US$196.25 million), ITIS's statistic compilation shows.

As to related parts and components, production value of color filters totaled NT$32.51 billion (US$1.01 billion) in the fourth quarter of last year, down 2.4% from the third quarter. By contrast, production value of polarizers grew by 7.4% to NT$11.62 billion (US$363.12 million) in the quarter, while that of glass substrates and backlight modules also slightly increased to NT$37.9 billion (US$1.18 billion) and NT$32.51 billion (US$1.01 billion), respectively.

ITIS analysts project production value of polarizers and glass substrates to move upward to NT$12.83 billion (US$400.93 million) and NT$42.14 billion (US$1.31 billion), respectively, in the first quarter of this year.