LG Electronics is planning mass production of OLED panels, as the company announced on Wednesday that it’ll be investing $8.71 billion to build a plant that’ll produce panels using organic light-emitting diode technology.
LG said that initially they’ll be spending 1.84 trillion won to manufacture a facility in Paju, South Korea. The plant will be called P10 and will manufacture OLED panels across all product categories such as TVs, smartphones, smartwatches along with automobiles. It’ll be a massive plant equivalent to an area covered by 14 football fields, while measuring 100 meters in height. Production starts in the facility in the first half of 2018.
“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 LG Display President and Chief Executive Sang Beom Han. “With the active support of the Korean government, we believe the P10 plant will become the center of the global OLED industry.”
Notably, the report comes after the news broke that Apple has decided to switch to OLED panels in its iPhone range starting 2018. Japanese publication Nikkei Asian Review earlier reported that LG is investing in a new plant in anticipation of the huge demand for OLED panels in the upcoming iPhones. Nikkei report said that Apple will be ditching the conventional LED technology that has been used in smartphones since the 1990s in favor of the more evolving OLED technology. Apple is still stuck with the conventional LCD screens, which the company has been using since the first iPhone debuted back in 2007.
Analysts predict that the market for OLED panels will witness a significant growth in the coming years. They’re undeniably far ahead of the traditional LCD panels with better color reproduction, better contrast along with those deep blacks. According to market research firm IHS, the market for OLED panels is expected to grow from $8.7 billion in 2014 to a $29.1 billion by 2022. The South Korean manufacturer it seems wants to capitalize on this projected growth.
