Price monopoly hurts Chinese TV markets

Between 2001 and 2006, while the six companies were supplying more than 80% of the world's LCD panels and manipulating prices, China's TV industry was going through a sales boom, consumers upgraded from CRT TVs to LCD TVs.

The investigation by the NDRC shows price changes by the six LCD panel companies were exactly the same in the years 2001 to 2006. They raised or cut prices by the same amount.

Guo Qingcun, Vice President of Hisense Group, said, "Actually, the Chinese companies had to put up with it in silence. On the one hand, they could not raise the price of their end products. On the other, they had to bear the price increase from the upper suppliers. The dual pressure was huge."

The six companies outside the Chinese mainland not only manipulated the price of LCD panels, they also displayed arrogance to the TV makers.

Hao Yabin, Director of China Video Industry Association,said, "Most of the 6 companies gave no official order contract. They only gave an intent to supply. Sometimes, the order was only confirmed orally or by email. Some Chinese companies struggled to place an order with them. And, when the delivery time came, they refused to supply goods."

Not only that, the LCD panel makers settled their business only in US dollars. And they also decided not to export the latest LCD panel technology to China. China could only get the technology two years later.

Xu Xinyu, Director of Anti-monopoly department of NDRC,said, "Our investigation found that they set a rule not to provide the latest technology to China's color TV companies in order to maintain their competitive advantage in the market."

What's more, the six companies only provided Chinese companies an 18-month warranty. That means that often by the time the TV was sold to consumers, the LCD panel was already out of warranty.