LG to Start Production of OLEDs in China Next Month, Set to Double OLED Output
by Anton Shilov on July 11, 2019 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Monitors
- Displays
- LG
- OLED
- LG Display
LG Display this week said that its plant in Guangzhou, China, would start full swing operations next month. The factory, which cost LG around $4.2 billion, will produce large OLED panels for Ultra-HD televisions. The new manufacturing capacity will nearly double LG’s output of OLED substrates and will enable the company to cut its costs.
LGD’s new 8.5G (2200×2500) OLED factory in Guangzhou will produce 60,000 substrates for large TVs per month, which will almost double output of the company’s OLED substrates to 130,000 per month. Eventually, the plant will be expanded with the second line and will increase its capacity to 90,000 substrates per month.
One of the world’s largest makers of OLED panels first announced plans to build a plant in China in mid-2017. It took LG Display a year to obtain necessary permissions from the Chinese and South Korean governments and then a year to build the factory. This month the company starts trial production and next month mass production is set to commence
LG Display invested about $4.2 billion in its Guangzhou facility, but it hopes the expenses will pay off. Firstly, there are lower wages in China when compared to South Korea. Secondly, subsidies from the Chinese government will enable LG to cut its depreciation costs by 65%. Thirdly, the new fab could allow LG to offset possible disruption of OLED production in South Korea because of the ongoing diplomatic conflict between Japan and South Korea. Fourthly, it will make LG Display more competitive against companies like BOE in the Chinese market.
Increased output and lower production costs will allow LG to make its OLED panels and therefore OLED TVs cheaper. Still, the exact effect is something that remains to be seen.
Related Reading:
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- LG To Close Korean Phone Manufacturing Plants - Relying On Cheaper Overseas Factories
- LG Announces The New G8 & V50 5G ThinQ
- CES 2019: LG Announces Signature OLED TV R - A Rollable TV
Sources: The Investor, OLED Info
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Dug - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Hey LG. Make a 32" 4k OLED monitor.ikjadoon - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Only if you and 25k people buy one every year. 😂I want one, too, but we're a tiny niche. If even Apple couldn't find a way to make OLED monitors palatable at their price points, I think we're a half decade away, at least.
Dell promised and never delivered three years ago. CES 2017: never forget.
ikjadoon - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
*CES 2016RIP, Dell UP3017Q, the 30" 4K OLED. We hardly knew ye.
Beaver M. - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Shouldnt be a problem. People would need a new one after 1 or 2 years.Ka-Ching $$$
eek2121 - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Sure, just like people claimed you'd need a new plasma TV every couple years. Mine is still going strong to this day, and it's probably about a decade old (would have to look at the manufacturer sticker).Beaver M. - Tuesday, July 16, 2019 - link
I dont deny that a lot of people are so blind that they cant see burn in problems.However, the issue with plasmas was only at the very beginning and would only occur when the TV was new and treated wrong (lots of static pictures). They solved the burn in issues. OLED hasnt. Period.
Beaver M. - Wednesday, July 17, 2019 - link
Oh and also were talking about monitors. There never was a plasma monitor.Diogene7 - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
@ikjadoon : I agree, sooo wish to see OLED display replace LCD everywhere : it would be nice to have tablet (iPad), 2-in-one computee (Microsoft Surface), laptop (Huawei Matebook X Pro), monitor...Ideally (ultimately) it should be flexible plastic OLED displays because they are lighter and thinner like the one in Samsung Galaxy S10+ but much larger size...
But there is likely a need of at least Gen 8.5 / Gen 10.5 flexible plastic OLED production fabs to see very large plastic OLED panels at a « reasonable » price, but as of 2019, to my knowledge, there isn’t any fab bigger than Gen6 for flexible plastic OLED, indeed we are still unfortunately at least 5 to 10 years away from such dream to materialize 😞...
eek2121 - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
I'd say more like 2.5 million. Many people own 4K monitors. I myself own 2x27" 4k HDR monitors. I purchased them both for $250/each brand new at a flash sale. I would likely buy an OLED 4k monitor as well. However OLED tech costs quite a bit more than your average IPS monitor.notashill - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Dell did deliver them though. They didn't deliver a lot of them but they do exist, you can even find them on ebay below MSRP.