TV SET SHIPMENTS FALL AGAIN

The news for TV set manufacturers continues to be grim, with researchers IHS reporting on Monday that for the second month in a row, shipments of flat-panel TV sets dropped below 2012 levels. Worldwide shipments in July, IHS said, dropped 6.3 percent to 14.88 million units. In a news release, the research group said, “The retreat in July was a repeat of what had happened in June, and the downward trend is unlikely to turn around soon given the ongoing reduction in demand.” Jusy Hong, senior analyst for consumer electronics & technology at IHS, said in the statement that TV shipments are likely to post a second year of decline in 2013. “If so,” he observed, “this would make it the second year in a row that flat-panel TV shipments retrench — an unthinkable prospect just a few years back, during the flat-panel boom.”