According to industry sources, Taiwanese display driver IC (DDI) suppliers mostly reported strong sales in the first quarter, but they are bracing for a challenging second quarter amid uncertain demand.

According to "Electronic Times", in the first quarter, among the world's major DDI suppliers, Novatek's revenue increased by 38.5% year-on-year, Ruiding increased by 37.8% year-on-year, Tianyu increased by 48.9% year-on-year, Sitronix increased by 38.4% year-on-year, only Duntai It fell by 10.5% year-on-year, mainly because its shipments mainly flowed to the mobile phone segment, and mobile phone demand momentum has been weak, which may be affected by the reduction of orders from mobile phone customers.

DDI demand for TV and Chromebook applications has trended downward since the fourth quarter of 2021, but DDI suppliers are seeing steady shipments of their commercial laptops, tablets and wearables. Novatek, the largest supplier, and some other peers are also aggressively advancing production of OLED displays for high-end mobile phones, even though the smartphone market remains fairly sluggish.

Automotive DDI chips are becoming a key chip area for Novatek, Qijing, Ruiding and Sitronix, all of which are committed to mass production of automotive DDI and TDDI chips in 2022, by allocating more foundry capacity to this field meet strong demand.

The sources pointed out that growing market uncertainty, such as worsening inflation, further weakened end-consumer demand, prompting customers to lower their shipment expectations for the second quarter.

The source also said that due to sluggish market sentiment, the price of display panels continued to fall, and the pressure to cut prices for mobile DDI and large-size TV DDI was increasing in the second quarter.