Competition and Leading Flat Display Panel Manufacturers in China

With the global industrial transfer and technology upgrade, a group of leading flat display panel manufacturers from mainland China is taking the opportunities and competing in the global market with their predecessors from South Korea and Taiwan.

I. Definition of flat display panel: Mainly divided into LCD and OLED panels

Flat display panel (FDP) mainly refers to the display technology used for electronic devices such as televisions, desktops, laptops, and mobile phones. Today is the age of information. The role of information display technology in people’s social activities and daily life is increasing rapidly. 80% of human information is obtained from vision, and the interaction between various information system terminal devices and people needs to be realized through information display.

The panel industry has become the leader of the optoelectronic industry, second only to microelectronics in the information industry, and has become one of the most important industries.

Display panel products mainly include liquid crystal panels (LCD), plasma panels, and organic light-emitting diode panels (OLED). At present, plasma panels have been completely withdrawn from the market due to factors such as large thickness, low resolution, and high price.

II. The competition and change of flat panel display industry in the world

FPD is a huge industry, the global market size has exceeded 100 billion US dollars. And it is a heavy asset investment. A high-generation production line often requires an investment of 30-40 billion RMB. Such a huge investment also directly drives the development of upstream in equipment and materials.

(1) From West to East

On the other side, the display panel industry is a particularly typical case of the “Eastward spread of Western Culture ”. The production capacity is transferred from the United States to the Chinese mainland step by step, following the route of “the origin from the United States – the development byJapan – the overtaking by South Korea – the rise of Taiwan area – scale and further development in mainland China”.

In 1962, Radio Corporation of America(RCA) developed the first LCD display model, and then relevant technologies were introduced to Japan, which made a crazy investment in LCD. By the 1990s, Japanese enterprises had almost forestalled the entire LCD market. Enterprises with the spirit of “LCD craftsman” represented by Sharp have made contributions to the research and development of LCD technology.

In the mid-1990s, South Korea took advantage of the trough of the liquid crystal cycle to expand substantially and replaced Japan’s position around 2000. By 2009, BOE from mainland China announced the construction of the 8.5 generation line, breaking the technical blockade of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Subsequently, Japanese and Korean companies such as Sharp, Samsung, and LG finalized the plan to build the 8th generation line in China at an alarming speed. Since then, mainland China’s LCD industry has entered a period of rapid expansion for ten years.

(2) LCD Panel: Nowadays, China ranks first in global production capacity

Until 2008, China’s LCD panels were still completely dependent on imports. Even in China’s annual consumption of imported materials, LCD panels ranked fourth after oil, iron ore, and chips.

After development in recent years, China’s panel industry has caught up from behind. In 2015, the LCD panel production capacity accounted for 23% of the world in total. With the Korean manufacturers having announced to withdraw from LCD and turn to OLED, the global LCD production capacity has further gathered in mainland China. In 2020, China’s LCD production capacity has already ranked first in the world, and mainland produced about half of the – LCD panels global.

At present, Chinese LCD manufacturers are mainly focusing on the further layouts of high-generation LCDs. From 2020 to 2021, in mainland China, BOE, TCL, HKC, and CEC will successively put into production a total of 8 important production lines larger than 7-generation.

(3) The epidemic era caused the panel price rise, and the Korean factories delayed their withdrawal from the LCD market

In 2020, the outbreak of the global epidemic has led to the adoption of blockade measures around the world. The mode of remote working and learning has led to a consumption surge of laptop electronic terminal products, overlapping the shortage of upstream materials, the global panel entered a new round of price rise cycle in June 2020.

According to WitsView quotes, the average price of 55″W (3840 x 2160) panels has risen from $103 in June 2020 to $176 in early January 2020, up $73 in just seven months.

In order to ensure the normal panel supply to their own terminals, both Samsung and LGD have announced a delay in closing the LCD production line. At present, LG P7 and P8 production lines are definitely delayed to exit completely by the end of 2021. Samsung L7-2 is planned to be shut down in the first quarter of 2020, and has not given a clear exit schedule for the remaining two lines of L8-1 and L8-2.

(4) OLED Panel: Samsung is the dominant company in OLED market, and domestic manufacturers in China actively layout