LG Display begins mass production at Chinese factory for large OLED panels

LG Display has opened its new 8.5G OLED panel factory in Guangzhou, China. The production facility is used for panels that end up in 55″, 65″ and 77″ OLED TVs. The factory will double the production capacity.

The new factory in China is a facility where 8.5G panels are made. This refers to the dimensions of the glass substrate, which is 2200x2500mm in such a factory. OLED panels for OLED TVs are cut from these large plates. Initially, the factory will deliver 60,000 of these plates per month, but in 2021 this should increase to 90,000 plates.

LG Display currently produces 70,000 plates per month at its other 8.5G facility in South Korea’s Paju. The arrival of the new factory will eventually lead to more than a doubling of production capacity. LG is also working on a 10.5G facility in Paju, producing 2940x3370mm plates. In 2022, that factory must deliver 45,000 plates per month. In July, LG Display announced that it would invest three trillion Korean won in that factory. Converted that is about 2.3 billion euros. The investments are intended to ensure that ten million OLED TV panels can be supplied annually by 2022.

LG Display says the plates from the new factory in China will mainly be used for OLED panels in 55″, 65″ and 77″ TVs, which are currently the most common sizes for OLED TVs. This year LG announced an 88″ OLED TV with 8k resolution and from next year LG Display will make panels for 48″ OLED TVs. Earlier this month, Business Korea wrote that the factory in China uses a multi-model glass method, which allows to cut OLED panels of different sizes from the plates. LG Display plans to cut 77″ and 48″ panels from the same plates.

The new production facility is owned by LG Display High-Tech China. It is a joint venture between LG Display and the Guangzhou Development District. LG Display owns seventy percent of the shares. The OLED factory stands on 74,000 m² of land and is nine storeys high. The total floor area is 427,000m². The facility is part of the LG Display Guangzhou Cluster, which also manufactures LCD panels and modules. Together, these facilities account for a surface area of ​​1.3 million square metres.

LG Display delivered 2.9 million panels for OLED TVs last year and expects this to rise to 3.8 million units this year. In 2020 it would be 5.5 million panels, in 2021 the company expects to deliver 7.1 million and in 2022 there would be 10 million. LG Display’s OLED panels are used in LG’s OLED TVs, but also in those of, for example, Philips, Sony and Panasonic. LG Display is currently the only manufacturer that makes large OLED panels for TVs.