South Korea's No. 2 tech giant LG Electronics Inc. has overtaken Samsung Display Co. in the global market for Ultra HD (UHD) TV panels for the first time in May, data showed Friday, with Taiwan's Innolux Corp. keeping its top position.

LG took up 27.6 percent of the global UHD TV panel market in May, outdoing the 22.2 percent held by Samsung, the data compiled by market tracker DisplaySearch showed. In April, LG and Samsung held 22.9 percent and 23.4 percent.

While Innolux has dominated the market with a share of 36.7 percent, its presence suffered a sharp drop from the 70 percent posted in January due mainly to the two South Korean players commencing their full-fledged efforts to garner larger slices by rolling out low-end UHD models.

LG Display saw its shipments of panels reach 392,000 units in May, soaring from the 26,000 units posted in December last year, when it accounted for 6.5 percent of the market.

By country, South Korean players took up a combined 49.8 percent, trailed by Taiwan, China and Japan at 43.1 percent, 5.9 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.

Industry watchers estimate the combined shipments of UHD TV panels will reach 22.01 million units this year, jumping seven-fold from the 3.07 million posted in 2013. (Yonhap)