According to reports from Vietnam, BOE decided to invest $400 million to build two new display factories, one of which will be used to produce OLED display modules. The OLED module fab has an estimated cost of $250 million. The module plant will begin operation by 2025.
According to the report, BOE plans to produce smartphone OLED modules at the new fab.
The Elec reports that Samsung Electronics is set to launch a foldable OLED laptop next year, using a 17.3" AMOLED display produced by Samsung Display. HP is also gearing up to release its first foldabl OLED, with a 17-inch display produced by LG Display.
Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED
Foldable OLED laptops are exciting, but current prices are very high, and so demand is low. The Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED for example, which uses a 17.3-inch display made by BOE, costs $3,500 - a very high price for a laptop. It is reported that Asus only ordered 10,000 displays from BOE as it understand it cannot ship many units at this price, and HP also not planning for many sales of their own first-gen foldable laptops, and have ordered a similar number of displays.
UBI Research says that according to its latest information and forecasts, shipments of Samsung's rigid smartphone AMOLED displays declined to 19 million units in Q3 2022, a drop of over 50% compared to last year. Rigid smartphone OLED display sales will continue to decline at an annual rate of 12.9% and will reach only only 96 million units in 2027.
Flexible OLED sales will continue to increase at a rate of 7.4% from 2022 to 2027. In 2027, Samsung Display will ship 220 million flexible OLED displays, while BOE will ship 140 million OLEDs.
UBI Research says that according to its latest study, the OLED emitter market is set to grow from around $1.82 billion in 2022 to $2.75 billion in 2027, with an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6%.
In 2027, UBI expects Samsung's emitter material orders to amount to $680 million - fueled by growth in foldable OLED panels. BOE's emitter material orders will reach $380 million, and LG Display's - $230 million.
UBI Research estimates hat shipments of OLED panels for IT applications (tablets, monitors and laptops) will reach 48.8 million units by 2027, growing from around 9.5 million units in 2022 (a CAGR of 39%).
In 2022-2024, the main application for OLED panels is in laptops, but this will change from 2025 and onwards as tablets will also become a dominant applications (as Apple will start adoping OLEDs in its high-end iPads).
OLED makers are gearing up to increase production of IT OLED panels, used in laptops, monitors and tablets. Towards that, analysts expects over 10 8.5-Gen OLED lines under consideration now in the industry. This drive is led by Samsung Display that confirmed is is building a 8-Gen (2200x2500 mm) OLED production line, that will begin production in 2024.
A 8-Gen (or actually 8.5-Gen) fab uses 2200x2500mm glass substrates. According to a new report in Korea, Samsung actually decided to adopt a larger glass - a 8.7-Gen 2290x2620 mm. The ~10cm increase will increase production efficiency by around 9%, but this means that current 8.5-Gen LCD equipment that Samsung hoped to use will not be usable any more.
As Sichuan province in China suffers from a record heat wave, and the local authorities announces power rationing, limiting power supply to factories in the area.
BOE has two 6-Gen OLED production lines in Sichuan (the B7 line in Chengdu which started operation in 2017, and the line in Mianyang). The company says that it will have to "make adjustments" to its operations in both lines, but it does not expect any major impact on its operations.
DSCC says that in Q2 2022, OLED panel revenues increased 12% compared to Q2 2021, while shipment units declined 3%. Fewer OLEDs were shipped, but revenues increased as we've seen an increased growth in high value panels (gaming, monitors, laptops, automotive, etc) and also an improved form factor adoption in smartphones.
In Q2 2022, smartphones remained the largest OLED application with a 76% unit and revenue share. OLED smartwatches had a 16% unit share (and a 6% revenue share), and OLED TVs had a 11% revenue share (up from 8% in Q1 2022).
There's a new report that suggests that Samsung Electronics is looking into adopting OLED displays made by BOE for its Galaxy Watch 6 smartwatch (which will be released in 2023).
The same report also suggests that Samsung Electronics is looking into adopting BOE OLEDs in premium smartphones.
DSCC estimates that the OLED market will increase 2% in 2022, to reach $42 billion. Revenues for smartphones, the leading OLED application, will actually decline by 4%, but this will be offset by increases in other applications.
In fact, some applications will experience very fast growth: OLED monitors (641% unit growth, 279% revenue growth), OLED laptops (64% units, 39% revenue) and automotive displays (73% units, 68% revenue).
