Display Search, a company involved with research and consulting of display market has reported that tight supply of colour filters (CF’s) for LCDs has loosened up in the second quarter of 2008.

The research company forecasts oversupply of CF’s in the year 2009. The author of the report, Charles Annis, Vice President of Manufacturing Research, said “Gen 5 CF procurement problems, in particular, should decrease as Toppan CFI restarts the former AMTC line, SVA Fujifilm ramps a new line, and other in-house and merchant CF makers expand capacity.”

Despite some supply problems, particularly for Gen 4 CFs, the author believes total colour filter supply will be sufficient and the capacity will continue to grow vigorously. New investments made in 2008 and 2009 will increase the capacity and keep price graph on a declining curve.

The report suggests 2008 will be a reasonably good year for the LCD industry and for the makers of CFs. The CF market value is expected to exceed $9.75 billion in 2008. X