(Yicai) Sept. 23 -- BOE Technology Group and other major Chinese manufacturers of liquid crystal displays have opted to schedule short production pauses during the National Day holiday that starts next week, after a similar move last year steadied prices.

BOE’s high-generation LCD production lines in Hefei, Wuhan, and Chengdu and TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology’s in Shenzhen will close for five or seven days during the holiday, Wang Xianming, head of market research firm Runto Technology, told Yicai.

Those of HKC Optoelectronics Technology in Chongqing, Chuzhou, and Changsha will stop for five days, while those of Japan’s Sharp in Guangzhou will break for eight, Wang added.

The National Day holiday, also known as Golden Week, is a week-long public holiday to commemorate the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This year, it runs from Oct. 1 through Oct. 8.

BOE will let employees at some of its production lines take off the holiday, according to an insider at the Beijing-based company. In addition, a source at TCL CSOT said the firm will close some of its production lines for the first week of next month.

The capacity utilization rate of LCD television panel makers in the Chinese mainland will likely drop from around 90 percent this month to below 80 percent next month, according to Wang.

By taking time off to proactively control production, manufacturers are expected to help stabilize LCD TV panel prices in October, Zhang Hong, deputy general manager of Sigmaintell's Large Size Display Division, told Yicai.

TV panel shipments are expected to reach their annual peak this month, but demand will decline next quarter when TV makers start buying fewer panels, Wang said, adding that this leads panel suppliers to attempt to suspend output during holidays to steady prices and even push them up.

Given the actual price impact when major panel producers halted production last October, the price of LCD TV panels next month will likely remain stable compared with that this month, according to Wang.

Due to the extremely high cost of shutting down LCD production lines, it is common for factories to keep them running over holidays with no materials fed in. In addition, employees usually take their holidays in turns. 

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev