LG Display, OLED Investment Ratio 50% this year → Next year 70%

During the 3Q performance conference call on 26th, LG Display mentioned that their investment ratio in OLED was 50% this year, and plans to increase its ratio to at least 70% next year.

Small and medium sized mobile display market will quickly change from LCD to POLED, and plans to strengthen business cooperation in 1Q of next year, such as mass production of 6th generation E5 line and technological competitiveness, in order to make the basis of OLED extension. It means they started to concentrate on small and medium sized OLED business starting next year.

They also revealed their production plan and future strategies of POLED production line. Gumi E5-1 line and E5-2 line are productions lines with monthly production capacity of 7500 sheets each, where they are proceeding POLED investments after converting existing LTPS facility, and also Paju E6 line is in process of investment to increase the monthly capacity of 15,000 sheets. It seems they will be capable for mass production by 2H 2018.

OLED TV market indicated that they will continue to put effort in cost reduction from improvements in rate, process, and production. They mentioned to establish OLED market more firmly in 1H of next year after successfully increasing the mass production capacity to 25,000 sheets. Among the entire TV panel, OLED sales took up 10%, and among OLED TV panel, 55-inch screen took up 70%, and they forecasted 65-inch market ratio will increase.

They noted they have high expectations of market growth in large screen HD field in large LCD. China is catching up in the market very fast but, they emphasized they will be able to easily acquire profitability by concentrating in high-end LCD such as OLED.

The biggest reason that they choice OLED as their next generation business is because there are possibilities in extension in automobile and commercial other than existing TV•monitor IT devices, and in case of automobiles, they said they are currently in cooperation with many other companies, and also informed many companies are interested in currently ongoing topic, VR, where they plan to adopt plastic OLED products.

In case of commercial products, they are proceeding developments with their customers in various fields such as medical and broadcasting other than public signage. They also mentioned that they are planning to proceed OLED light business after collecting many applications in one place.

From price increase of large LCD panel and extension of large-scale trend of all products, LG Display continued their profit relay for 18 consecutive quarters by resulting 3rd quarter sales of 6,723,800 million KRW and profit of 323,200 million KRW. Sales increased by 15% (5,855,100 million) compared to past quarter, operating profit increased by 634% compared to past quarter (44,400 million KRW) due to improvements in high-valued products such as ASP, UHD, and IPS.
On the other hand, according to Yubi industry research, LG Display forecasted to ship out 900 thousand large OLED panel in 2016, and 1,500 thousand in next year.

LGD Expands Market Through Active Support of OLED

 

On July 23, LG Display announced its earnings results at LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, South Korea. During this event, LG Display revealed its decision to invest approximately US$ 900 million in Gen6 flexible OLED line in order to lead the flexible OLED market.

 

LG Display’s CFO, Kim Sang-don, explained that flexible OLED Gen6 line investment was decided at the board of directors meeting on July 22, and was made official on the morning of July 23. Kim added that the decision was reached so that LG Display can lead the OLED business in terms of technology and to occupy initial market in foldable and rollable technologies. He also commented the monthly capa. of the flexible OLED line will be 7.5K.

 

Regarding large area OLED panel, it was emphasized that this year’s panel production target remains to be 600,000 units and 1,500,000 units next year, same as the ones announced during the Q1 earnings results presentation. It was also revealed that 34K, approximately 9K higher than current capa., will be in operation in 2016. Addressing the concern of oversupply of next year’s 1,500,000 units while the OLD TV market is still small, LG Display suggested the solution of increasing the demand by active promotion from the second half of this year.

 

Despite the fall of mid to large size panels’ sales price, from the enlargement of sets and AIT technology applied sales performance, the business profit of approximately US$ 4,000 million was recorded. This is a 34% decrease compared to the previous quarter but a 199% increase from the same period in 2014. LG Display estimates that the sales will increase in the third quarter due to seasonal factors and panel’s enlargement trend.

 

LGD, OLED 적극적인 지원으로 시장 확대

7월 23일, 여의도 LG 트윈타워에서 LG Display의 실적 발표회를 개최하였다. 이날 LG Display의 경영진은 플렉서블 OLED 시장 선도를 위해 1조 500억원 규모의 Gen6 플렉서블 OLED 라인 투자 결정을 공시했다.

LG Display의 CFO 김상돈 전무는 “Flexible OLED Gen6 line 투자가 어제 이사회에서 결정되었고, 오늘 아침에 공시되었다”라고 말하며 “OLED 사업에서 기술적인 우위를 가져가기 위한 결정이었고 foldable이나 rollable 기술에서도 시장 선점을 할 것이다”라고 투자 결정의 이유를 설명했다. Flexible OLED line은 월 7.5K가 가동될 것이라고 덧붙였다.

대면적 OLED 패널 관련해서는 지난 1분기 실적 설명회 때 밝힌 것과 같이 올해 패널 생산 목표는 60만대, 내년 150만대 임을 다시 한 번 강조하였다. 또한 2016년에는 현재 가동되는 capa.보다 약 9K 이상인 34K가 운영될 것이라고 밝혔다. 이어 아직 OLED TV의 성장이 크지 않아 내년 150만대에 대한 공급 과잉의 우려에 대해서는 올해 하반기부터 적극적인 프로모션 활동을 통해 수요를 늘리겠다는 방안을 제시했다.

한편 LG Display는 중대형 패널의 판가 하락에도 불구하고 세트의 대면적화와 AIT 기술을 이용한 실적 덕분에 영업이익은 4조 8,800억원을 기록하였다. 이는 전분기 대비 34% 하락한 수치이지만 작년 동분기 대비 199% 오른 수치이다. 3분기 실적에 대해서는 계절적 요인과 패널 대형화 트렌드가 매출 상승에 기인할 것으로 보여진다고 발표했다.