What They Say
The Elec reported that LG Display plans to boost the production capacity of its fab in Guangzhou, China, which currently has a capacity of 60K substrates per month. It will be expanded to 90K in June and will start production in July. There will still be two lines, which are currently 30K per line, but which will be boosted to 45K each.
The boost will come from reduced TACT time and the use of some equipment for the oxide backplane which had previously been installed, but not used.
Once the upgrade is done, LGD will consider whether to boost its production in Paju, Korea, where it has capacity of 80K substrates.
What We Think
I did wonder if a big boost to capacity might be needed if, as has been reported, the firm has done a deal with Samsung to provide TV panels. As we reported, Samsung said that it hadn’t done a deal, but then again, it didn’t say that it wouldn’t! As Ken pointed out last week, yield issues ramping up QD OLED might mean a need for Samsung to have to get OLEDs from LG to cover a shortfall.
I must say, I’m not convinced that Samsung would want to add WOLED as well as QD-OLED. The firm had said that it was already at the kind of limit for marketing purposes with its LCD, miniLED and microLED plans and didn’t want to add another technology. WOLED and QD OLED would probably have to be in different parts of the premium market, with different pricing. (BR)
