CMEL

Revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were $2,716,819, compared to $3,014,630 for the first quarter of 2007. Commercial revenue, which includes commercial chemical revenue, license fees and royalty income, increased to $1,555,065 for the first quarter of 2008, from $1,440,900 for the first quarter of 2007. Developmental revenue, which includes contract research revenue, technology development revenue and development chemical sales, decreased for the first quarter of 2008 to $1,161,754, compared to $1,573,730 for the first quarter of 2007. Universal Display believes these revenue categories, which now combine accounts previously reported separately, better reflect the Company’s business strategies and activities.

Digitimes reports that CMEL is expected to move in equipment for the second AMOLED line in September.

CMO's board of directors on Tuesday announced a decision to increase its investment in Chi Mei Electroluminescence, investing a further NT$900 million to fund the subsidiary's second AMOLED panel line.

DisplaySearch reports that Samsung SDI drove the market, pushing shipments to 20.2M, which was up 30% Q/Q but down 9% Y/Y. For the year, total revenues grew 6% to US$493.9M (see Table 1) and total shipments grew 8% to 74.7M, according to the DisplaySearch Quarterly OLED Shipment and Forecast Report. The report findings also show that the shipment mix is changing, as AMOLEDs had a 9.7% share of total revenues in Q3’07, which jumped to 41% in Q4’07.

Digitimes says that CMEL is likely to add a 3.5-inch panel to its AMOLED panel range. CMEL currently offers 2.2- and 2.8-inch AMOLED panels, and it is set to start shipping a 4.3-inch version in the second quarter.

CMEL recently was reported to have landed orders for 7.6-inch OLED panels from Kodak with shipments to kick off in the middle of this year, according to today's Chinese-language Commercial Times.

• RiTdisplay had a record quarter and led in revenues with US$31.0M and units with US$6.4M.
• Pioneer was #2 in units and #3 in shipments, while Samsung SDI, the only company shipping both PMOLEDs and AMOLEDs, was #3 in units and #2 in shipments.
• Samsung SDI has already upped its production and expects to ship >2M units in Q4’07, while RiTdisplay should continue its explosive performance with shipments of more than 7M units, a new record for one supplier.
• Chi Mei EL also started production of AMOLED displays with volume of 16K, a number they expect to double in Q4’07.
• MED joined eMagin as the only two companies shipping microdisplay-based OLEDs.

Samsung SDI was able to announce a number of design wins with the Japanese mobile phone carrier AU  announcing AMOLED main display mobile phones by Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, Hitachi and Sanyo.  Previously, Samsung SDI announced design wins with Nokia and Kyocera.  The new AMOLED main displays are all in the 2.8” category, which should help the mobile phone makers recover the premium prices charged for AMOLED displays. 

During the FPD 2007 exhibition in Japan, CMEL showed a 25" AMOLED TV. CMEL said they will invest 30M$, building a 2nd OLED production line, to be operational in 3Q 2008 with a monthly capacity of 700,000 2" panels. They will also introduce 4.3" panels at 1Q 2008 and 7.6" ones at 2Q.

CMEL will begin shipping 2.8-inch AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) orders to China handset vendors in October or November, noted Chen.

Digitimes reports that Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) recently announced it will make additional investments in its OLED subsidiary Chi Mei EL Corporation (CMEL) of NT$600 million (US$18.12 million).