Electronics

With its characteristics of flexibility, lightness and thinness, and high color gamut, OLED has become the first choice for the replacement of mobile phone display technology, and it has also become the standard for many high-end mobile phones. Prior to this, Samsung had almost mastered the voice of the entire industry in the field of smart phone OLED panels, but recently, this situation seems to be changing.

The latest report by market research firm Omdia pointed out that Samsung’s display market share of OLED panels has fallen from 80% in 2020 to 77% in 2021, and may further fall to 65% in 2022. The market share of China's OLED panel is expected to rise from 15% in 2021 to 27% in 2022. With the acceleration of OLED screens in smart phones, major panel manufacturers have launched fierce competition.

Samsung fully expands OLED production capacity

Recently, Samsung Display officially launched a project to convert the TV LCD 7-2 production line in Tangjing to an OLED panel production line. It plans to complete the dismantling of the original production line before July 20, and then build a sixth-generation small and medium-sized OLED panel production line. Plan to invest 17 billion yuan to increase the production capacity of OLED panels.

Some commentators said that benefiting from the booming smartphone display market, the demand for OLED panels is expanding rapidly. If Samsung Display's production capacity cannot keep up quickly, its dominance will be shaken. The dismantling of the LCD production line this time is also trying to secure the first "seat" in small and medium-sized OLED panels.

Zhang Zhihua, a senior analyst at OFweek's Industry Research Center, pointed out that there is a high probability that Apple’s new OLED screen will be supplied by Samsung Display this year. Later, as other OLED panel manufacturers continue to put into mass production, LG, Sharp, JDI, and various mainland China OLED panel manufacturers in Taiwan and China are likely to be included in their supplier evaluation system.

Chinese manufacturers compete in the OLED panel market

According to Omdia’s forecast, China’s largest display panel company BOE’s market share is expected to expand from 6% in 2021 to 13% in 2022, TCL China Star Optoelectronics will increase from 2% to 6%, and Tianma will increase from 1% to 4%. .

In fact, the rise of Chinese panel makers has long been traced. Beginning in 2009, TCL Technology, BOE, Huike and other companies have successively increased production and quickly occupied the TV LCD panel market, which accounts for 70% of the global panel market’s total shipments, forcing South Korean companies to focus on the OLED market.

Public data shows that China's OLED production capacity has rapidly increased from 1.1% in 2016 to 13% in 2020. In 2020, China's OLED production capacity has reached 4.388 million square meters. In addition, there are many OLED production lines under construction, and domestic OLED production capacity is continuously increasing.

Industry insiders commented: “At present, in the domestic smartphone market, the localization rate of OLED panels is increasing rapidly. The development of domestic OLED panel manufacturers is not only to maintain the safety of downstream enterprises’ industrial chain and improve bargaining power, but also more important. It can support the development of downstream enterprises through its own technology."

Domestic OLED industry chain still needs to make up for shortcomings

On the whole, the OLED panel industry chain covers upstream materials and equipment, midstream R&D, production, and downstream applications, among which there are still many shortcomings that need to be supplemented urgently.

At the technical level, core patents in the OLED field are still concentrated in the hands of Korean companies, and independent research and development capabilities need to be strengthened. Take Samsung's technical patent in the subdivision of OLED display technology in the field of internal folding screens as an example. This patent can simplify the stacking structure of OLED displays. If domestic panel manufacturers want to bypass this process, they must solve production problems through more complex processes, which will also increase production costs.

The technological gap between domestic OLED manufacturers and Korean companies has gradually narrowed. BOE has applied for more than 27,000 patents on OLED display screens, gradually surpassing South Korean display giant LG. Aolaide has achieved a technological breakthrough in optical materials, and successfully developed and produced the evaporation source of the evaporator. Wanrun has also made breakthroughs in the optical matching layer and TADF green light monomer materials.

At present, Chinese manufacturers still have much room for improvement in the production capacity and yield of flexible AMOLED. Although the production lines of BOE Chengdu and TCL Huaxing Wuhan have achieved mass production, their production capacity is still limited. Domestic AMOLED still has room for profit improvement.

Liu Tun, a senior analyst at CCID Consulting, believes: “Domestic manufacturers should continue to improve their AMOLED production line technology maturity, increase production capacity to form a scale effect, and continue to improve their ability to bundle with terminal brand customers to further activate profit margins.”