ET News of Korea said that LG Display will invest $3.56 billion into its P10 line, in Paju, which will have production for OLEDs for smartphones, rather than for TVs as it seeks to ensure a position as the second supplier of flexible OLEDs for smartphones after Samsung. The plant would have start with a capacity of 30K substrates in 2018, with a further 30K per month in 2019.
The paper said that equipment would be brought in from March 2018, with the second stage starting in November 2018.
LG is also reported to be planning to upgrade its existing plants to boost the sale of small and medium OLEDs, The E5 in Gumi and E6 in Paju would have additional equipment to boost capacity.
In total, by the end of the investment process, the capacity would be 120K G6 substrates per month – around half of Samsung’s capacity.
LG may also make some OLED TV panels at the plant, using G8.5 equipment, but with a plan to fully develop with a new G10.5 fab that would start with LCD and then switch to OLED (which matches previous reports – Man. Ed.). This would be a lower risk strategy than going straight to G10.5 OLED.
