In a blog post, David Hsieh of IHS Markit has forecast that BOE, which was recently revealed as the panel maker with the highest volume of large LCDs in Q4 for the first time (BOE Takes First Place in Large LCD Shipments), will be the panel supplier with the highest capacity by 2019, with 54.8 million square metres, going past LG Display (53.8m m²), Foxconn (Innolux & Sharp – 53.7m m²) and Samsung Display (52m m²)
This chart (which includes LCD and OLED capacity) shows clearly how the Korean and Taiwanese investment slowed right down in 2010 and 2011 as revenues in the key markets flattened.
Display manufacture is BOE’s biggest business segment and the company has been aggressively investing to expand to get to the top position. At the moment, Hsieh said, LG is the company that has the highest capacity (see table), but if Foxconn and Sharp are combined, then that grouping would be top with 57.3m m².
In his article, Hsieh gives details of the 13 fabs that BOE has or is considering and highlights that, at the moment, the firm’s expansion is, relatively, slow compared to other years, with just 14% growth expected. However expansion will accelerate in 2018 and 2019.
In its different segments, BOE is the largest supplier of notebook panels, second (to LG) in monitors and third in TV (behind LG Display and Innolux). This year, BOE is focusing on selling more large TV panels, with shipments dropping from 44 million last year to 40 million in 2017. Monitor panels are expected to move to include more higher quality IPS panels, rather than TN as well as moving to higher resolutions.
Finally, Hsieh said that BOE may have some challenges in building up its rigid and flexible OLED panel supply business.
