LG Display, the world’s leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it will invest KRW1.84 trillion (US $ 1.60 billion) to begin building a new panel plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Korea, with production expected to commence in the first half of 2018.
The company decided on the new plant, known as P10, because of anticipated demand for OLED panels over the next several years. The P10 plant will mainly produce both large-size OLED TV panels and flexible OLED panels for smartwatches and automotive displays.
The KRW1.84 trillion investment covers the construction of the P10 building, the foundations for the clean rooms and infrastructure for water and power supplies and will begin this year. The total investment in the P10 plant is expected to reach more than KRW10 trillion, and with LG Display gradually expanding the scale of the production line based on customer demand and market conditions.
The completed plant will cover an area of 382m x 265m, which is equivalent in size to 14 football fields, and will be 100 meters high. Plans call mostly for the installation of large size OLED lines that will be ninth generation or above along with flexible OLED lines at the new plant. The first production line is scheduled to start mass production in the first half of 2018.
The company is expecting the lines will produce OLED in every product segment, including ultra large-size products as well as future products such as flexible and transparent displays. “LG Display’s investment in P10 Plant is a historical investment for the industry since it will not only help expand the OLED market but also accelerate the development of future display technologies,” said Dr. Sang Beom Han, CEO and President of LG Display. “With the active support of the Korean government, we believe the P10 plant will become the center of the global OLED industry.”
IHS, the market research firm, forecasts the global OLED panel market will grow to US $29.1 billion in 2022 from $8.7 billion in 2014.
TV manufacturers in Korea, China and Japan have already launched OLED TV models and more TV manufacturers in Japan and Europe are expected to adopt OLED TVs in the near future. Demand for flexible OLED panels in the smartwatch and automotive display sectors is also rising because they offer better design flexibility than LCD panels.
LG Display announced in August that it would invest more than KRW10 trillion in expanding production of large-size OLED panels, flexible OLED panels and premium LCDs by 2018. The company has already announced it will invest KRW1.05 trillion in a sixth generation flexible OLED production line in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk Province. The sixth- generation production line will produce 7,500 sheets per month and is expected to start mass production in the first half of 2017.
