Strong Demand for Flexible OLED
As Apple has ordered 70 million flexible OLED panels from Samsung Display for the next iPhone, the global dominant player of flexible OLED is expected to accelerate its construction of new facilities this year.
When Apple’s new iPhone using flexible OLED is to be unveiled in the second half of this year, the demand for flexible OLED will grow around 88 percent on an annual average from 2017 to 2020.
Samsung Display has more than 95% share in the global market of small OLEDs used for smart devices like smartphones. Samsung’s dominance in the market is expected to continue for the next few years due to its unmatched technology and the economy of scale, according to HI Investment & Securities.
Samsung Display, which poured approximately one trillion won (US$900 million) into the OLED assembly line-up last year, will make a US$9 trillion investment this year. Along with this, Samsung will shift the existing L7-1 assembly line to an OLED line that will produce 30,000 flexible OLED panels per month from the fourth quarter of this year. Samsung also will increase the monthly production capability from the current 30,000- 40,000 panels to 120,000-130,000 by the end of this year.
“Samsung Display is expected to add new facilities at the end of this year to meet the growing demand for OLED panels. For this, Samsung Display needs to either shift its current LCD assembly line into flexible OLED or it should construct new facilities. But, the company will find it hard to shut down the LCD assembly lines because of the strong LCD TV demand,” Chung Won-seok, an analyst at HI Investment and Securities, said at the Display TechSalon held in Seoul on April 4.
In the meantime, amid the wide speculation in the market that Samsung Electronics may unveil its foldable smartphones sometime this year or next year, Samsung remarked that it is likely to be difficult to see the commercialization of foldable smartphones until 2019 as its bezel-free display sells well currently and the foldable display still has technical hurdles to be addressed.
“Since the bezel-free display sells well currently, we have enough time to enhance the technology for foldable display. The technology is expected to be mature around 2019,” Kim Tae-woong, an engineer at Samsung Display, said at the Display TechSalon held in Seoul on April 4.
“Samsung Display is expected to commercialize foldable smartphones as early as in 2019 because the company does not need to sell the new handsets equipped with foldable display since those with bezel-free display are earning 20 percent of the company’s operating profit,” Analyst Chung at HI Investment and Securities also said.