(Yicai) Sept. 23 -- BOE Technology Group, TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology, and other major Chinese liquid crystal display manufacturers will temporarily suspend production during China's National Day holiday that starts next week, after such a move stabilized prices last year.

The high-generation LCD production lines of BOE in Hefei, Wuhan, and Chengdu and of TCL CSOT in Shenzhen will close for five or seven days during the National Day holiday, which runs Oct. 1 through Oct. 8, Wang Xianming, director of market research firm Runto Technology, told Yicai. The production lines of HKC Optoelectronics Technology in Chongqing, Chuzhou and Changsha will stop for five days and of Japan's Sharp in Guangzhou for eight days, Wang added.

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

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

Panel makers halt production during the National Day holiday to control their output, which they predict will stabilize the prices of LCD TV panels next month, Zhang Hong, the deputy general manager of Sigmaintell's Large Size Display Division, said to 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 manufacturers to attempt to suspend production during holidays to stabilize prices and even push them up.

Given the actual price impact when major panel makers 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 the core production processes of such factories to remain operational during holidays, meaning that they will keep their production lines running with no materials fed in. In addition, employees usually take their holidays in turns.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev