Korean Display Makers Push OLED Efficiency as China Expands

Samsung Display and LG Display are both pushing to raise production efficiency in IT OLED panels, as Chinese display makers expand into the same market. The two Korean companies outlined their positions around a technology seminar held on the 8th, according to inews24.com.

Samsung Display is operating its 8.6th-generation IT OLED line, the A6 facility in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, where mass production began in July. The company aims to secure an annual production capacity of 10 million panels based on 14.3-inch panels.

LG Display unveiled its FLiPP technology in August. The method forms OLED pixels using light instead of a fine metal mask (FMM). LG Display said that when producing 23.5-inch panels from 8th-generation substrates, cutting efficiency rises from 75% to over 93% and productivity improves by about 24%. The company plans to first apply FLiPP to OLED for notebooks and tablets. At the seminar, LG Display said FMM production, management and related defects can cost hundreds of billions of won per year per model.

Chinese expansion and market forecasts

Chinese panel makers are moving into the segment. BOE held a mass production and customer delivery event for 8.6th-generation OLED in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in June and announced supply of 14-inch notebook panels to Lenovo and others. Its B16 line, built with an investment of 63 billion yuan (about 13 trillion won), is designed to process 32,000 glass substrates per month. Visionox is building an 8.6th-generation OLED factory with an investment of 55 billion yuan (about 11 trillion won), and TCL CSOT is investing 29.5 billion yuan (about 6 trillion won) in inkjet printing production facilities.

Market researchers offer differing views. Omdia forecast that global notebook and monitor panel shipments will total 397.89 million units this year, down 0.4% year-on-year, with OLED shipments within that total reaching 23.95 million units, up 55.6%, and monitor OLED shipments reaching 6.1 million units, up 79%. According to UBI Research, Chinese companies surpassed Korea in smartphone and foldable phone OLED shipments in the second quarter, but the lead reversed in the third quarter, with Samsung Display and LG Display combined holding 58.7% versus 41.3% for Chinese firms. Counterpoint Research predicted that China's total OLED production capacity will surpass Korea's by 2029, based on total capacity rather than actual shipments.