China Predicted to Overtake Korea in OLED Market in 5 Years
Chinese display makers are stepping up their efforts to tap into the OLED market after establishing dominance in the global LCD panel market. In particular, they are eyeing the large OLED market, which is dominated by Korean companies, through cooperation with Japanese companies.
According to foreign media reports, JOLED, a Japanese display company, has recently formed a business partnership with China's TCL CSOT and started joint development of large OLED panels for TVs.
TCL CSOT will take over new shares that JOLED will issue to raise funds. The amount of funding will reach 20 billion yen and TCL CSOT will secure a 10.76 percent stake in JOLED.
Under this partnership, they are planning to produce large OLED panels for TVs through the inkjet printing method, a next-generation production technology. The reason why display companies representing Japan and China have joined forces is that they have strong will to overtake Korea, which has been maintaining its leading position in the OLED market.
Currently, LG Display is monopolizing the large OLED market. Chinese companies have already carved out a niche in the small and medium-sized OLED market and are seeking to overtake Korean companies in the large OLED market.
However, experts say that Chinese companies cannot take over the position of South Korean companies right away as there are still technical limitations in producing large OLED panels directly through the inkjet printing method.
Chinese companies are revving up their large OLED business by making aggressive investments with strong support from the Chinese government. BOE aims to mass-produce OLEDs for TVs by 2024 by investing one billion yuan in developing technologies for large OLEDs. HKC is planning to mass-produce large OLEDs by building production lines in Hunan Province, China from 2021. CSOT is also working on large OLED test lines and ponder when to make large-scale investments.
Korean companies are worried as they have already lost some of their shares in the small and medium-sized OLED market to Chinese companies. Market researcher DSCC expects China's OLED market share to hit 50 percent in 2024, in excess of Korea's 45 percent. Last year, the market share was Korea's 76 percent versus China's 22 percent. According to the prediction, Chinese companies will turn the tide against their Korean competitors in just five years.