Financial

LG Display to raise 970 million USD to accelerate its OLED R&D and production expansion

LG Display says it plans to issue new shares, and raise around $970 million USD. The company plans to invest this capital in its OLED business, to meet the demand for advanced displays.

LG 2024 OLED TV range launch image

LG Display's strategic plan is to increase WOLED (large-area) display production by 20% compared to 2023. It also plans to increase its small and medium sized AMOLED business, but it seems LGD has not yet committed to expand production capacity further.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 04,2024

UDC reported its financial results for Q4 2023, sees a new cycle of investments in the OLED industry

Universal Display Corporation reported its financial results for Q4 2023, with revenues of $158 million, and a net income of $62 million. For the whole year (2023), UDC reproted revenues of $576 million and net income of $203 million. The company ended 2023 with $800 million in cash and equivalents, and has increased its quarterly dividend.

UDC RGB PHOLED materials photoUDC says that the market still suffers from soft spending in smartphone and premium TVs. UDC, however, says that it believes that the OLED industry is starting a new and exciting multiyear investment cycle.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 23,2024

China-based OLED microdisplay maker Lumicore raises $100 million in its Series A funding round

Shanghai-based OLED microdisplay maker Lumicore announced that it has closed its series-A funding round, raising $100 million. Lumicore will use the funds to ramp-up its 8-inch production line in Nanjing, and introduce its first products to market.

Lumicore developed several OLED microdisplays, including a 2K 144Hz 1.32" display.  The company is also developing 4K microdisplays.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 03,2024

BOE reports a 70% drop in profits in 2023, as demand for displays remains low

BOE Group says that profits in 2023 dropped almost 70% compared to 2023, as demand for displays is low. BOE says that its profit in 2023 will be in the range of 2.3 to 2.5 billion yuan (around $324 to $350 million USD). Including some nonrecurring items, the company expects to report a net loss of $77 - $100 million USD in 2023 (that's around 70% lower than the loss in 2022).

BOE 15-inch rollable OLED demo, Display Week 2023

BOE says that its LCD business was more profitable in 2023 - which likely means that its OLED business is still incurring losses. BOE updates that it shipped almost 120 million flexible AMOLED displays in 2023 (in October it said it sold over 100 million).

Read the full story Posted: Feb 01,2024

Korea to introduce new tax incentives for OLED businesses to attract new investments

The Korean government plans to add new tax incentives for strategic technologies, increasing the tax deduction possible to 40-50% for small and medium-sized companies, and 30-40% for large businesses. Korea's display sector is already protected as a strategic industry - and last year the government added OLED specifically as a national strategic technology.

Korea's Finance Ministry announced it plans to add tax incentives worth up to $711 million per year, as it hopes to attract more investment into new growth drivers and boost the local economy.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 25,2024

LG Display returns to profit as OLED smartphone and TV shipments increase

LG Display announced its financial results for Q4 2023, with an operating profit of almost $100 million - after 7 quarters of losses. LGD says that demand for both its smartphone displays and WOLED panels (TVs and monitors) has increased. OLED revenues amounted to 57% of the company's total revenues during the quarter. 

LG Display says that it expects market volatility to continue in 2024, due to prolonged unstable macroeconomic conditions. The company will be "strengthening the competitiveness of its OLED businesses", and it expects OLED panel shipments to grow 20% in 2024 compared to 2023. In the upcoming Q1 2024 quarter analysts expected earnings to weaken due to low seasonal demand.

Read the full story Posted: Jan 25,2024

BOE signs the official contract with Chengdu's local government to build its 8.5-Gen IT AMOLED line

BOE has been planning a 8.5-Gen flexible IT AMOLED Line for a couple of years, and in November 2023, following some delays, the company officially announced its plans for the new fab. Now we hear from China that the Chengdu local government, together with Chengdu's Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, have signed the contact with BOE to build the new plant.

The total investment in the fab is expected to reach 63 billion Yuan (over $8.7 billion USD). The fab will have a capacity of 32,000 monthly substrates (2290x2620 mm), and is expected to begin production by Q4 2026 (total construction time will be 34 months, according to the plan).

Read the full story Posted: Jan 12,2024

Japan Display delays and scales back its plan to mass produce eLEAP AMOLED displays in China

In 2022, Japan Display (JDI) announced that it has developed a "historic breakthrough in display technology" - a new OLED deposition process which they refer to as eLEAP, that is said to be cost effective and can be used to create freeform OLEDs that are brighter, more efficient, and longer lasting compared to OLEDs produced using mask evaporation (FMM).

JDI eLEAP AMOLED technology advantages

Japan Display announced an agreement with China-based LCD maker HKC Corp to mass produce panels by 2025 in China, based on JDI's technology, but the plan was later cancelled, and JDI said it will establish its own factory in China. The company was negotiating with the Wuhu Economic and Technological Development Zone (in Anhui Province), aiming to establish two eLEAP AMOLED production lines by 2025. JDI hoped to sign the formal agreement before the end of 2023.

JDI now announced that it is scaling back its plans. Originally JDI aimed to establish two production lines: one 6-Gen (with a capacity of 10,000 monthly substrates) and one 8.7-Gen (30,000 monthly substrates). Now JDI decided to reduce its plans, to a single 8.7-Gen fab. In addition, it estimates it will sign the final contract in March 2024. The 8.7-Gen line will start mass production in December 2026.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 30,2023

Royole employees hold a demonstration, demanding their past wages

In 2022, we reported that US- and China-based Royole is in financial problems. The company did not manage to raise funds, and started laying-off many of its employees, following several months it did not pay any wages.

It turns out, that Royole's problems aren't over - even though it seems the company is no longer in business. The company did not pay past wages for many of its employees - some of whom (including guards and production line workers) have 12 months of wages due. Yesterday 50 employees held a demonstration, demanding their wages.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 26,2023

Kyulux raises $28.6 million, is on track to achieve full-scale mass production of its HF/TADF emitter system by 2025

Kyulux announced that it has raised $28.6 million USD in its Series C funding round, led by El Camino Capital and the MCP Group. This brings Kyulux total funding so far to $86 million USD.

A part of the Kyulux team based in Fukuoka, Japan

Kyulxu says that it will use the newly raised funds to further accelerate its product development, strengthen its IP portfolio and achieve full-scale mass production of its emitter system by 2025, with its affiliated chemical companies.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 01,2023