Samsung is shipping 5 million more panels for the iPhone 15 than it expected this fourth quarter, but that’s all coming at expense of LG Display, which seems to have experienced quality and production issues that precluded it from benefiting from Apple’s largesse.
Korean securities analysts are predicting that LG Display may record an operating of loss of about 740 billion won ($546 million) when it announces its third quarter results at the end of this month. That is 50% higher than the general consensus about the company’s fortunes. LG Display is estimated to have 13% of the iPhone 15 display market compared to Samsung’s 87% with BOE looking like it might be able to wiggle its way into the equation at some point in the first quarter of 2024. LG Display is also expected to see a 22% drop in sales for the third quarter, down to 5.3 trillion won ($3.9 billion).
Korea’s display industry is, on the whole, finding that Apple is helping to keep its exports up while the rest of the Korean tech industry, particularly semiconductors and memory chips, suffer from significant downturns. The country’s Ministry of Science and ICT (information and communication technology) reported that while Korea’n exports of ICT products decreased 13.4% YoY, the display segment saw an increase of 1%. Display exports in September, 2023, were around $2 billion in value.
According to the same report, mobile phones showed an eighth month of consecutive declines with a exports being down 33.4% even as the exports of mobile phone components increase to China to Vietnam. Vietnam has seen its import of Korean displays increase by 1.9%, while China, the US, and Europe saw significant declines of 22%, 18.7%, and 12.2% respectively.
