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Approval of LG Display Plant in China, cementing the global No.1position in large OLED market

LG Display has earned approval to invest in Gen 8.5 OLED panel plant in Guangzhou, China.  As the government, who has delayed the approval due to the possible technology leakage, finally gives ‘a conditional approval’ for the plan, the construction of large size OLED panel factory will embark on.

 

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) hosted ‘the 17th Industrial Technology protection Committee’ on June 26th, in which government officials and 20 civilian members participated to approve LG Display’s overseas expansion of OLED panel manufacturing technology on the condition of maintaining the localization ratio of equipment and materials to a certain level, preparing local security measures, and investing in next-generation technologies in Korea.

 

This approval would be a chance for LG Display to further increase the productivity of large size OLED panels and strengthen its market competitiveness.  In addition, they can expect sales growth and tariff reduction in Chinese TV market.  At the IMID 2018 held in BEXCO in Busan last August, LG Display CTO In-Byeong Kang said, “ Recently OLED TV has overtaken LCD TV market share in North and Central Americas and Europe, but not yet in China.  We will increase our market share of OLED TV in China, which is recently being raised as a largest TV market in the world.”

<Market share of global OLED TV market: LG Display>

LG Display plans to strengthen its presence in larger OLEDs by completing both the newly approved Guangzhou Gen OLED line and Paju Gen 10.5 line.  According to UBI Research, LG Display’s 55-inch and larger OLED panel shipments are projected to increase from 2.4 million units in 2018 to 10 million units in 2022.

<Expectation of 55-inch and larger OLED panel shipments 55 inch >

LG Display 중국 공장 승인, 대형 OLED 절대 강자 입지 굳힐 것

LG Display의 중국 광저우 8.5세대 OLED 패널 공장 투자가 승인됐다. 그 동안 기술 유출을 이유로 승인을 미뤄왔던 정부가 ‘조건부 승인’을 하기로 결정하면서 TV용 OLED 패널 제조 공장의 중국 건설이 본격적으로 시행된다.

산업통상자원부는 지난 26일 정부위원과 민간위원 20여 명이 참여하는 ‘제 17회 산업기술보호위원회’를 개최하고 LG Display의 OLED 패널 제조기술 해외 진출 승인안을 승인했다. 정부는 중국 광저우에 8.5세대 OLED 설비 투자를 허용하는 조건으로 장비·재료의 국산화 비중 일정 수준 유지와 현지 보안 대책 마련, 차세대 기술 국내 투자 등 세가지 조건을 주문했다.

이번 승인을 통해 LG Display는 TV용 OLED 패널의 생산성 확대와 시장경쟁력을 한층 더 강화할 수 있을 것으로 보인다. 또한, 중국 TV 시장에서의 매출 증대와 관세 절감 효과도 기대 된다. 지난 8월 부산 벡스코에서 열린 IMID 2018에서 LG Display의 강인병 CTO는 “최근 OLED TV는 북중미와 유럽 premium TV 시장에서 LCD TV의 점유율을 추월하였으나 중국 시장에서는 아직 그렇지 않다”며 “전세계 최대 TV 시장으로 언급되는 중국에서 OLED TV 점유율을 더욱 더 끌어올릴 것”이라고 밝힌 바 있다.

<글로벌 OLED TV 시장 점유율, Source: LG Display>

LG Display는 이번에 승인 된 광저우 8.5세대 OLED 라인과 함께 파주 10.5세대 라인을 빠른 시일 안에 마무리 하여 대형 OLED에서의 입지를 더욱 더 견고히 한다는 계획이다. UBI Research에 따르면, LG Display의 55 inch 이상 대형 OLED 패널 출하량은 2018년 240만대에서 2022년에는 1,000만대까지 늘어날 것으로 전망했다.

<55 inch 이상 OLED 패널 출하량 전망>

LG Display, Expects 40% of OLED out of total sales in 2020.

 

LG Display spoke that they plan to change the sales structure by focusing on the OLED sales at the conference call in Q2, 2017 which was held on 26 July, and they expected that the OLED sales portion among the total sales would be from 10% in this year to 40% in 2020.

Sang-don, Kim, the CFO of LG Display said that they will invest about 15 trillion won of production line for the Gen10.5 OLED and the Gen6 POLED(Plastic OLED) at Paju P10 factory against 4 years. He said that “The investment of Paju P10 is a leading task for the mass production and the improvement of efficiency because the demand of OLED TV is rapidly increasing by the forecasting of 2.5 million units in 2018 and 6 million units in 2020. We will take the P10 factory as an OLED hub.”

The CFO also said that “We plan to order and install the necessary equipment from July 2017 to January 2019 for the Gen10.5 OLED line in Paju P10 factory, and through test period for 6~12 months, the 1st target will be to mass-produce the OLED of 30,000 units per month based on single unit. 5 trillion won will be invested to the P10 factory to install new lines of the Gen6 POLED with 30,000 units per month and it would be started to produce it in 2019.”

Accordingly, LG Display announced that E5 in Gumi, which was previously invested, plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in this year, E6 in Paju plans to mass-produce the Gen6 POLED with monthly 15,000 units of scale in Q2 2018. In addition, they mentioned that at the OLED new line in Guangzhou, China, will mass-produce the Gen8.5 OLED with monthly 60,000 units of scale from the first half of 2019 by the investment of the 5 trillion won. For concerns on the technology leakages about the investment of the Gen8.5 OLED in Guangzhou, the CFO, Sang-don, Kim, said “There was no cases of technology leakages in the LCD line of Guangzhou until now from last 2013 since the OLED is complicated technology to copy, and there would be much benefit by the localized equipment and all investment instead of it.”

Meanwhile, the sales of LG Display for the Q2 this year were reduced QOQ 6% (7,620 billion won) as 6,629 billion won, but, increased 13% versus same quarter of last year (5,855 billion won). The portions by the products are following: 46% for TV panels (QOQ +3%p), 22% for Mobile panels (QOQ -4%p), 17% for Monitor panels (QOQ +2%p), 15% for Laptop/Tablet panels (QOQ -1%p). LG Display explained that the performance in first half declined due to the seasonality impact, but the shipments in second half considered as high-season, will be increased versus first half.