The display business represents over 88% of the company’s revenues, and took the biggest hit to revenues YoY in 2022. The company lost $1.08 billion last year, a drop of 71% YoY, and the first in 13 years.
The following is a breakdown of the revenue figures from the company’s recent financial reporting. We can get into them a little bit after your mind goes blank from looking at all the numbers. It’s a $6.6 billion drop in total revenues from 2021, and the display business lost $6.9 billion. The offset numbers are adjustments for intercompany transactions, returns, currency fluctuations, or any number of events. Chinese companies make the adjustments to their results in this way, which is putting it high up in the line items for reporting.
| BOE 2022 | 2022 (RMB) | 2022 (USD) | 2021 (RMB) | 2021 (USD) | Change (%) |
| Revenue (all direct sales) | 178,413.73 million | 26,762.06 million | 221,035.72 million | 33,155.36 million | -19.28% |
| By division | |||||
| Display devices | 157,949.49 million | 23,692.42 million | 203,938.46 million | 30,590.77 million | -22.55% |
| IoT innovation | 27,245.46 million | 4,086.82 million | 28,379.33 million | 4,256.90 million | -4.00% |
| Sensor | 306.55 million | 45.98 million | 216.19 million | 32.43 million | 41.80% |
| MiniLED | 846.82 million | 127.02 million | 458.25 million | 68.74 million | 84.79% |
| Medical engineering | 2,203.14 million | 330.47 million | 1,846.55 million | 277.98 million | 19.31% |
| Offsets | -10,137.73 million | -1,520.66 million | -13,803.07 million | -2,070.46 million | -26.55% |
| By product category | |||||
| Display devices | 157,949.49 million | 23,692.42 million | 203,938.46 million | 30,590.77 million | -22.55% |
| IoT innovation | 27,245.46 million | 4,086.82 million | 28,379.33 million | 4,256.90 million | -4.00% |
| Sensor | 306.55 million | 45.98 million | 216.19 million | 32.43 million | 41.80% |
| MiniLED | 846.82 million | 127.02 million | 458.25 million | 68.74 million | 84.79% |
| Smart medical engineering | 2,203.14 million | 330.47 million | 1,846.55 million | 277.98 million | 19.31% |
| Offsets | -10,137.73 million | -1,520.66 million | -13,803.07 million | -2,070.46 million | -26.55% |
| By region | |||||
| Mainland China | 74,124.46 million | 11,118.67 million | 95,015.38 million | 14,252.31 million | -21.99% |
| Other regions in Asia | 63,351.90 million | 9,502.78 million | 96,677.88 million | 14,501.68 million | -34.47% |
| Europe | 5,745.26 million | 862.79 million | 5,478.69 million | 821.80 million | 4.87% |
| America | 35,121.53 million | 5,268.23 million | 23,770.50 million | 3,565.57 million | 47.75% |
| Other | 70.58 million | 10.59 million | 93.27 million | 13.99 million | -24.33% |
| BOE 2022 | 2022 (%) | 2021 (%) |
| Display devices | 88.53% | 92.26% |
| IoT innovation | 15.27% | 12.84% |
| Sensor | 0.17% | 0.10% |
| MiniLED | 0.47% | 0.21% |
| Smart medical engineering | 1.23% | 0.84% |
| Offsets | -5.67% | -6.25% |
| By region | ||
| Mainland China | 41.54% | 42.99% |
| Other regions in Asia | 35.51% | 43.74% |
| Europe | 3.22% | 2.48% |
| America | 19.69% | 10.75% |
| Others | 0.04% | 0.04% |
I can’t really say much about these results other than the fact that it is highly unlikely that this year is going to reverse enough of the sell-through not to keep hurting. The company obviously has room to grow with non-display products, but even the significance of the IoT division won’t make much of a dent because that business was down, too. It’s displays, displays, displays.
What Will BOE Do?
From BOE’s guidance, we know that the company has a bunch of things that it wants to do including transparent displays, gaming laptops, and digital signage. The company leads with its Taishan Project, expecting to produce LCD screens with competitive qualitative features to OLEDs. The company’s objectives are a static contrast ratio of 2500:1, and an increase in the color gamut to DCI P3 99.5%. There’s something to be said about LCD sales being a port in the storm for BOE, but it’s hard to predict how the second half of this year plays out for them because LCD displays may be the most competitive segment of the market this year, overall.
Additionally, BOE is working on LTPO process improvements, which will help it to reduce cost and make it more competitive in the market. On flexible display, BOE has Honor phones and a roadmap that probably entails getting more OEMs on board. It is looking at gaming laptops. Then, there’s automotive sector where it has some way to go, probably. Then, there’s Apple, where delays and issues with BOE’s production of displays to Apple’s standards was a negative, but those numbers were not baked into 2022.
If I were a betting man, which I am not, I’d say that there is probably a 2024 with good news for BOE, and 2023 is going to be a hold on and hope for the best kind of year. Even with all its reach and resources, BOE is up against stiff competition in every sector that it is in, and the US sanctions that may be hindering its manufacturing capability are probably hurting more than anyone wants to admit.
