China’s BOE aims to increase its OLED panel production by over 50% within three years, challenging rivals like Samsung Electronics as it seeks to build on its success in the LCD market, according to a new report in Nikkei News. The new factory, B-16, began construction in late March in Chengdu, with approximately 10,000 workers dedicated to completing the project swiftly. It’s an indication of how aggressive Chinese manufacturers are becoming in looking to claim dominance in the OLED market that this kind of news, normally hidden away in trade journals, is going mainstream. It may also be that the Japanese are having flashbacks to their own experiences with LCD manufacturing and either feeling schadenfreude for the South Koreans or just reliving old traumas.
BOE has put 63 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) into a factory will produce OLED panels for IT products using Gen-8.6 technology with mass production beginning in 2026. Samsung has set a similar timeline for its Gen-8.6 OLED panels. Despite its progress, BOE holds a 12% share in the global OLED market, trailing Samsung’s 56% and LG Display’s 18%. However, with the new Chengdu plant and plans for another facility in Fujian Province, BOE aims to close this gap. BOE’s strategy mirrors its approach in the LCD market, where government support helped it build numerous factories and outcompete rivals such as LG Display and Sharp. Last year, BOE led the global market for LCD TV panels by value with a 26.5% share, according to DSCC. The Chinese government has backed BOE’s expansion plans through funding and subsidies amounting to 23.1 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) over the past decade.
