What They Say
In its quarterly earnings call, UDC said that it has extended its deals with LG Display, Visionox and Tianma as well as announcing a new plant to be established with PPG, the firm’s manufacturing partner in Shannon, Ireland, to boost capacity. The firm expects to see revenues of $625 to $650 million.
The firm continues to develop its OVJP printing technology that the firm said that it still believes will allow the high volume manufacturing of TV panels.
The big news was that the firm said that its phosphorescent blue will meet target specifications by the end of this year, leading to commercialisation of an
“all phosphorescent RGB stack into the commercial market in 2024”
The firm listed boosts to capacity in OLED display manufacturing:
- LG continues to ramp its TV panel production and will invest in more G6 capacity for smartphones, automotive and IT
- BOE has begun production of Phase 1 of its third OLED fab in Chongqing which has a monthly design capacity of 48K G6 flexible substrates
- Asus has shown a 17.3″ foldable notebook with a flexible OLED
- Tianma last week had a production start ceremony at a new fab (again with 48K design capacity) in Xiamen with total investment of $7.6 billion – the largest investment in Xiamen history.
- CSOT is ramping Phase 2 and Phase 3 lines for flexible OLED in Wuhan, and with Phase 1 at 45K substrates
- Visionox has capacity for 30K substrates
Overall, with 10 expansion projects in the next two years, UDC expects area capacity to increase by 20% to 25% over the end of 2021 by the end of 2023.
Over 2021, the firm saw operating income at $228 million and with net income of $184 million on revenues of $554 million up 29%, with material sales of $319 million. The firm expects revenues of $625 million to $650 million.
What We Think
In its comments, the firm said that the new blue phosphorescent will deliver better efficiency, brightness and lower panel temperature.
This is big news. Blue has always been the Achilles heel of OLED and UDC has been cautious about putting a time frame on the development of phosphorescent blue. Exciting times ahead and now I’ve seen this news, I’ll make a deeper dive. (BR)
The markets don’t seem to have been impressed with the blue news!
