OLED production - Page 28

In January 2018 it was reported that LG Display is in the final stages of its discussions with Apple, and the Korean OLED maker expects to supply 15-16 million flexible OLEDs to Apple in 2018 (LGD will supply Apple with 6.5" AMOLEDs for its 2018 large iPhone OLED variant).

The Wall Street Journal now reports that LG Display may not be ready to produce these OLED displays in time for Apple - who may once again rely on Samsung Display to produce all of its OLED iPhone displays in 2018.

Everdisplay is producing a range of AMOLED displays, for smartphones and wearables, and we have added three new EDO displays to our OLED Marketplace.

The three new displays are a 0.95" 180x120 AMOLED, a round 1.19" 390x390 AMOLED and a rectangular 1.41" 320x360 AMOLED. Let us know if you are interested in acquiring these displays!

LG Display halted production in some of its OLED and LCD lines in its Paju production base, following a fire that outside the construction site. No one was injured seriously, but nine workers were sent to the hospital.

The production lines were halted for 14 hours, but are no operation normally. LGD said it cannot estimate exact losses from the shutdown.

Samsung's next flexible OLED line, the 6-Gen A4 line was supposed to be ready by Q2 2018, but according to a new report from Korea Samsung decided to delay the operation in this fab by six months.

The reason, of course, is softer demand from smartphone makers in China and the lower shipments to Apple - which already resulted in the construction delay of Samsung's A5 line.

In January 2018 Sharp's CEO announced that Sharp aims to begin commercial production of flexible OLED displays for its own smartphones in Q1 2018. A new report from Taiwan says that Sharp is progressing with its OLED plans.

Digitimes now says that Sharp has converted some of its capacity at its 4.5-Gen Taki plant from LTPS LCDs to OLED displays. The Taki Plant had a total capacity of 90,000 monthly substrate, and a third of that capacity was converted to OLEDs (but rate will be slower for OLEDs - 22,000 monthly substrates). It is not clear whether Sharp actually started producing OLEDs already.

Samsung's OLED fabs are currently under utilized - with some analysts estimating that its flexible OLED fabs are running at about 50% capacity following lower-than-expected orders from Apple. SDC also decided to delay its upcoming A5 production fab.

Samsung OLED TVs (2013)

This is a lot of wasted capacity. Last month I speculated that SDC may target new applications for its OLEDs - including monitors and laptops - or perhaps transparent OLEDs as well. According to a new report from Korea, SDC may be aiming to start constructing an A5 line - but use it to produce large-area OLED TV panels. According to a financial analyst, Samsung recently assembled a new OLED TV team with 300 R&D employees.

IHS estimates that Korean OLED makers (Samsung and LGD) will halt their OLED capacity expansion in 2018, but will resume adding capacity in 2019. Meanwhile China-based makers will continue their fast expansion plans in 2018-2020, and total AMOLED production capacity in China will grow from 228,000 sqm in 2016 to 8.3 million sqm in 2020, that's a CAGR of 145%!.

Interestingly IHS sees no real OLED production in Japan at least until 2020.

In October 2017 BOE started to produce flexible OLED displays at its first flexible OLED line, the Chengdu B7 6-Gen fab. In addition to this fab in Chengdu, in October 2016 BOE announced another 6-Gen OLED fab, in Mianyang, with a similar capacity.

In November 2017 reports from Korea suggested that BOE is planning its third flexible OLED Line, as the Chinese company aims to ramp up production quickly and be able to supply flexible OLEDs to Apple in the future. Today BOE officially announced its plans to construct its third line in Chongqing's Liangjiang New District. BOE's new fab will cost 46.5 billion Yuan, or about $7.3 billion USD.

Market analysts from DSCC say that the low utilization rates at Samsung Display has caused the company to delay its capacity expansion plans. SDC's decision to delay its A5 fab has already been discussed, but DSCC now says that Samsung is also significantly delaying the ramp-up at its new A4 line. DSCC estimates that SDC will delay this new line by at least a year.

LG Display has also reportedly cancelled the first phase of their next flexible OLED line, the P7 (which can be a conversion of LGD's old P7 LCD line). DSCC sees LGD ordering equipment for a new flexible OLED line only at the beginning of 2019.

Lumiotec announced that on March 31st if will stop producing its OLED lighting panel, to "plan the further performance enhancement of the product" and to plan its future business. Lumiotec will continue to offer its panels (series P06, P09, P11 and P13 panels) while stocks last.

Last month Japan's V-Technology announced it will acquire Lumiotec, which is likely what is behind Lumiotec's decision.