Sharp is reported by the WSJ to have said that it would boost its investment plans on OLED to around ¥100 billion ($880 million), a boost of almost 75% compared to the original announcement in September. The aim is to boost production to 30K substrates per month, around 15 million finished mobile panels per year from 2018, although Sharp would not comment.
Analyst Comment
15 million is a ‘drop in the ocean’ in an OLED market that is expected to hit a billion units per year in the next three years. If Sharp is not to be left behind by even the Chinese, it will need to substantially increase its investments beyond this level, in our view. It’s a shame that the company has not committed to OLED. Over the years, it has shown that it has good technology by demonstrating impressive prototypes. However, the OLED business is now a high volume one. To compete, makers probably have to think about getting past the ‘tens of millions’ range. That is going to need a lot of investment. (BR)
