LG Electronics Aims to Raise LCD TV Sales 40% as Price Drop Boosts Demand

LG Electronics Inc., the world’s second-biggest maker of liquid-crystal-display televisions, plans to increase LCD TV sales by about 40 percent next year, as lower prices boost demand.

The company is aiming to sell 35 million LCD TVs, compared with the 25 million sets it expects to sell by the end of this year, said Simon Kang, president of the LG’s home entertainment division. Sales including plasma TVs may reach 40 million sets next year from 29 million this year, he said.

Global shipments of LCD TVs are expected to rise 23 percent to 226.7 million sets in 2011 from 184.1 million this year, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets analysts Matt Evans and Minji Ha wrote in a an Aug. 25 report. Retail prices of TVs are likely to start falling, in line with declining LCD panel prices, bolstering consumer demand, according to the report.

LG expects sales of LCD TVs that use light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, as screen backlights to account for about 60 percent of its total LCD TV sales next year, Kang said. The company’s LED- lit TV sales amount to about 20 percent of that total now, according to the company.

Seoul-based LG said on July 28 operating profit fell 90 percent to 126.2 billion won ($105 million) in the second quarter, as it had a record loss from its hand-set business.

Profit at the home-entertainment division declined 90 percent to 28.1 billion won, while sales increased 19 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jun Yang in Seoul at jyang180@bloomberg.net.

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