SEOUL: South Korea’s leading flat panel maker LG Display Co. said Monday it plans to spend 10 trillion won (US$8.46 billion) by 2018 to further nurture its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) business.
The OLED segment is set to become a game changer for the global display industry, LG Display said, adding it will speed up its departure from traditional liquid crystal display (LCD).
“While the plan (to focus on the OLED segment) aims to make LG Display a sustainable company, we must pioneer into the OLED industry in order to make South Korea beat rival countries and obtain dominance,” said Han Sang-beom, the head of LG Display.
LG Display said its expansion of the OLED business is anticipated to contribute 35.5 trillion won to the country’s economy and create some 130,000 new jobs, leading to a revitalization of the local market.
The company said it plans to become the No. 1 player in the large-sized OLED panel segment for premium TV lineups and in the mid-sized area for flexible and wearable products.
LG Display said the latest moves by Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese rivals to restructure their display capabilities also have pushed the company to speed up its transition to the OLED sector. The world’s OLED market is anticipated to reach US$28.3 billion in 2022, soaring from $8.7 billion in 2014, according to the data compiled by DisplaySearch.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of LG Display’s production of flat-display products. LG Display said its sales climbed to 26.4 trillion won in 2014 from 1.5 billion won in 1995.
