LG Display to close LCD panel factory in Poland to focus on OLED biz

[Photo provided by LG Display Co.]

South Korea’s LG Display Co. decided to liquidate liquid crystal display (LCD) module plant in Poland, its manufacturing base in Europe built in 2005, as a part of its exit from money-losing LCD business due to Chinese competition and mainstream shift to the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display.

According to sources on Tuesday, LG Display’s board last month approved a plan to divest its Polish production entity with an aim to better focus on the OLED business.

It currently operates two display manufacturing plants at home and eight in three counties overseas – five in China, one in Vietnam, and one in Poland, and the Polish manufacturing site will be sold to LG Chem before June, LG Display said. LG Chem, which already has a battery site in Poland, is yet to decide on what to do with the new site.

The Korean display maker has been betting big on OLED since it started supplying OLED TV panels in 2013. It shipped 3 million units of OLED panels last year and plans to add the premium 8K resolution OLED panels to its TV panel lineup this year.

Besides the 8K modules, LG Display is developing other advanced OLED solutions such as speaker-embedded Crystal Sound OLED (CSO) and Wall Paper TV, which is as thin as wallpaper, as well as rollable and transparent displays to cement leadership in next-generation display.

[Photo provided by LG Display Co.]

LG Display’s 8.5-gen factory in Guangzhou, China will start mass production in the second half of this year, a move that is expected to ramp up its large OLED panel output from 2.9 million units in 2018 to 4 million in 2019 and 10 million by 2021.

It also plans to increase production of the plastic OLED panel to raise its presence in the small- and mid-size panel market.

LG Display`s vice chairman and CEO Han Sang-beom

“We’re going all-out efforts to make OLED the standard type of display and LG Display will cement its position as a global leader in the display market,” said Han Sang-beom, vice chairman and CEO of LG Display at a press meeting before CES 2019 in January.

LG Display is in fierce competition with its long-time foe Samsung Display that focuses more on quantum dot display, dubbed QLED, technology.

On Wednesday, LG Display shares closed unchanged at 16,900 won ($14.17) in Seoul trading.

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