Rumor: LG Display cuts production LCD panels for televisions in half

By admin On Dec 4, 2019

Spread the love

LG Display would almost halve the production of LCD panels for televisions from next year. That is according to the South Korean website The Elec. This step would have been prompted by lower prices and also fits in with the planned transition to the production of OLED panels.

The plan to nearly halve the production of LCD panels would be related to the sharp drop in market prices for these panels, writes The Elec citing an industry source. This year the turnover from LCD panels would have been three times higher than the turnover related to the supply of OLED panels, but it is expected that OLED panels will make up 60 percent of the total sales of all television panels.

LG Display does not intend to cut supplies of LCD panels for the IT sector, which include LCDs for monitors, tablets and laptops. This segment is said to be a good profit so far. LG Display’s sales last year were 40 percent attributable to TV panels, followed by ‘it panels’ for 36 percent and smartphone panels for 24 percent.

Partly due to the mass production in the Chinese factory in Guangzhou, LG Display expects that the number of 2.9 million OLED panels delivered from 2018 will increase to about 4 million units this year. In 2020, this should then amount to 5.5 million panels delivered, to rise to 7 million units in 2021 and 10 million units in 2022. That expectation is related to the fact that LG Display is currently still the only manufacturer that makes large OLED panels for televisions.

LG Display is not the only player that is making significant cuts in its LCD panel production. Panasonic recently announced that it is pulling the plug on the production of LCD panels for automotive and industrial applications. The Japanese manufacturer already stopped producing LCD panels for televisions in 2016. As a motivation for these decisions, Panasonic pointed to the stiff competition in LCD panels, which puts prices under considerable pressure. This mainly concerns the rise of Chinese manufacturers of LCD panels.