Recently, the "China Business" reporter learned from the South Korean panel giant LG Display (LGD) that the current world's highest generation OLED panel 10.5 generation production line has been under construction is expected in 2019 The second half of the year to achieve mass production, by 2020, LGD OLED panel production will reach 6.5 million, accounting for the company panel production more than 50%.
At the same time, Chinese and Japanese companies are also accelerating the OLED panel industry to catch up.This year, October 26, the domestic panel giant BOE (BOE) announced that China's first 6th generation flexible AMOLED production line to achieve mass production; TCL's Huaxing Power In March also announced that it will build the sixth generation of AMOLED production line in Wuhan. In addition, the Japanese panel maker JDI also expressed its intention to shift from LCD to OLED.
Insiders pointed out that with the continuous improvement of technology, continuous release of production capacity, OLED market share will gradually increase in a long period of time, the current panel industry is expected to be broken pattern.China and South Korea panel makers in all aspects of OLED is still a gap However, it is estimated that by the second half of 2018, competition among panel makers in China and South Korea will accelerate.
Giants competing layout
In June this year, LGD announced a total investment of 15 trillion won (about 90 billion yuan) of the OLED investment plan, plans to increase investment in South Korea based on the existing large-size and small and medium size OLED production line by 2020 Of the investment, will Paju display industrial park as OLED production base.
Recently, the reporter saw in LGD South Korea Paju Industrial Park, currently the company on behalf of the world's highest generation of OLED line P10 10.5 generation plant has been under construction. Relevant staff said the line is expected to start next year, equipment, the second half of 2019 will Mass production.While with the P8 plant in Paju industrial park has achieved the eighth generation of large-size OLED production line, while the P9 factory has already achieved small-size OLED production.
In the previous investment plan, in the field of large-size OLEDs, LGD will invest 2.8 trillion won in building 10.5-generation OLED production line first, together with the large-size OLED production line currently under construction with a total investment of 5 trillion won. Field, will invest 5 trillion won for the construction of 6 generations of POLED production lines, including the ongoing investment, the total investment scale will reach 10 trillion won. LGD revealed to reporters that the current LGD and Apple have cooperation in Apple Watch products .
Earlier, LGD also announced that it will spend 1.8 trillion won on its first generation of OLED production line in Guangzhou, outside of mainland China, for the first time. Recently, South Korean media reported that the investment is currently pending the approval of the South Korean government and is expected to be finalized in early December. Told reporters that when the Guangzhou factory investment case finalized at present there is no clear time.
LG Display in the recently released third quarter results said: OLED panel sales in 2017 is expected to 1.7 million in 2018 will reach 2.5 million, 650 million by 2020. LGD official told reporters that the current OLED panel Production accounts for about 2% ~ 3% of LGD's total output, by 2020, this figure is expected to exceed 50%.
Currently LGD is still the world's only large-size OLED manufacturer, and in the small and medium size OLED, South Korea's monopoly is being broken.On October 26, the domestic panel giant BOE announced that China's first 6th generation flexible AMMOLED production line to achieve In the past, South Korea's two major panel makers LGD and SDC (Samsung Display) in the field of OLED is almost monopolized, SDC is the world's small and medium size OLED panel makers. With the November 3 Apple iPhone X on sale , Its first use of OLED screens on mobile phones sparked the industry's attention to flexible OLED panels.
According to the introduction of BOE, flexible AMOLED, in addition to the already mass-produced BOE Chengdu 6th generation flexible AMOLED production line, BOE Mianyang 6th generation flexible AMOLED production line will also be completed and put into operation in 2019. In addition, another domestic panel Huaxing Power giant also announced in March this year will be built in Wuhan 6th generation AMOLED production line, other mainland panel makers and glow, Guoxian, Viginox and so on are also in the layout.
The foreign media also reported recently that the Japanese panel makers JDI and JOLED will also introduce Chinese manufacturers of funds may be mass-produced OLED panel in the second half of next year.JDI has been for many years a loss, its president and CEO East into the letter Bo in the second quarter of this year After a net loss of 1.9 billion yen, it told the media that it would shift its previous focus on liquid crystal to OLED, saying it even said "there is no future without OLED."
However, for media reports that BOE may invest JDI to produce OLED, the BOE told reporters that this is a misunderstanding. BOE has always been open to any win-win cooperation, but it does not target any specific project.
Industry competition intensified
As known in the art, OLED is a display technology that has a self-luminous property, the pixel can control the brightness itself, at the same time, due to the scalability, OLED can also be transparent, flexible, foldable display applications.
According to AVC statistics, the global OLED TV panel shipments were 400,000 units in 2015 and there is only one LGD supplier. LGD OLED yield improved after 2016, Global OLED TV panel shipments of 900,000, accounting for the total global TV panel shipments of 0.4%.
Peng Jianfeng, deputy director of China Video Industry Association, told reporters that the current low penetration of OLED TVs there are two main reasons, while on the one hand although the high-end models, OLED TV and LCD TV gap will not be too much, but on the one hand, And the average price of LCD TVs compared to the gap is still relatively large; the other hand, capacity constraints, only LGD supply a large-size OLED panel, with the release of other large-size OLED production line capacity, OLED TV penetration will increase.
It is learned that in early 2016, there were only 5 OLED TV manufacturers in the world. In 2017, 13 TV manufacturers in the world, including Chinese manufacturers, have launched OLED TVs. Not only Chinese manufacturers including Skyworth, Konka and Changhong, LG Electronics, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba, Metz and other global TV manufacturers.
LGD official told reporters that the current high price of OLED there are two reasons, first, market strategy, due to capacity constraints, the current market is still in short supply of OLED state; the other hand, LGD OLED research and development in the production of a huge investment is expected Two to three years after OLED prices will have a more significant decline.
'In the short term, due to large-size OLED supply is not sufficient, but also to maintain high-end positioning, panel prices will not show a big decline.' Aowei Cloud Display Big Data Vice President Dong Min believes that the domestic panel factory is currently Active layout of large-size OLED, but the product of mass production, richness, production line of production experience point of view, and the South Korean panel makers still have a greater gap, but with more production lines after 2019, good technology The rate of increase, the completion of market education, OLED large size will return to value, so as to quickly complete the replacement of some LCD TVs.Ovy cloud network is expected in 2018 global OLED TV panel production capacity will grow to 2.8 million, 2019-2020 production capacity Will enter a period of rapid development.
In the field of small size flexible AMOLED, "Aowei cloud network phone chain price tracking report" shows that the current volume of larger 6.01 inches FHD + AMOLED panel price of about 45 US dollars, 5.99-inch FHD LTPS panel price of 26 US dollars So far, the price difference between small-size OLED and liquid crystal is still not small.
Although BOE's G6 production line from the B7 plant has been mass-produced since the end of October, taking into account the yield and capacity ramp-up, it is also necessary to reach the normal shipping level by the second half of 2018. At present, only SDC, LGD, BOE, BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE BOE, BOE BOE production increased the choice of the terminal and bargaining chip to Samsung, but in the short term OLED mobile phone panel prices will still maintain a certain level of stability.
Dong Min believes that the current flexible AMOLED mainly South Korean manufacturers dominate Japan's AMOLED input in the mainland is not active, the mainland panel BOE, and glow, Guoxian Optoelectronics are active in AMOLED grab high-end R & D personnel, for the upstream supply Therefore, although China and South Korea have different AMOLEDs in all aspects at present, AMOLED's marketization in the Mainland is only a matter of time and it is estimated that by the second half of 2018, the competition between China and South Korea will become even more intense.