Chinese display giant BOE, in its conference call for the first half of 2020, stated it plans to ship more than 40 million units of flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels this year. 
The company in a statement claimed to have shipped around 16 million units of 6th generation flexible OLED panels in the first half of the year. Over 24 million units is projected to be shipped in the second half of the year, so that total shipment for the year will exceed 40 million units. According to BOE, 4 million units was moved from July to August.
If the company meets its yearly target, it means they had a 135% rise in shipment from last year. Omdia revealed that about 17 million units of flexible OLED were moved by BOE last year. With 40 million units shipped, it’s still about a quarter of annual shipment of Samsung Display, the biggest manufacturer of OLED.
There’s a plan by BOE to expand its OLED production line. Expected to go live in the second half of 2021, is the B12, at Chongqing. BOE aims to reach a monthly production capacity of 144,000 sheets per month. Meanwhile, they are exiting B7 and B11 line. The company has on table the plan to produce another fourth line called B15 at Fuqing in a later date, it will be a 6th generation OLED line.
Samsung Display, according to Stone Partners, shipped 29.3 million units of flexible OLED panels in the second quarter to control 63.2% of market share. Closely followed was BOE with 11.3 million units and 24.4% market share. Samsung in the first quarter had 81.9% market share with 37.9 million units, while BOE has 8.5% with 3.9 million units.
BOE said that out of the 16 million it made in the first half of 2020, the B11 line produced 4 million panels, which is otherwise called the Apple Line. The company didn’t reveal then which company bought the panels produced there, as they could not clinch an order from Cupertino for the iPhone 12 series.
The Chinese display giant is planning to ship OLED panels to Apple, of both B11 and B7 lines. BOE’s first flexible OLED line was the B7, which began operations in 2017. The line which is also known to have a stable yield rate has been supplied to Huawei amongst other Chinese smartphone makers.
The company also disclosed during the conference how difficult it will be to say for the larger OLED panel if the inkjet printing OLED was superior to the White OLED. LG Display used the White OLED technology for its OLED panels aimed at TVs, which adds a white pixel to the standard red, blue and green ones. While the Inkjet printing OLED will project the light emitting material into the panel.
COST, which is next to BOE in terms of production of display, said they planned to build a factory that will manufacture large OLED panels in Guangzhou in 2023
During the conference call, BOE said they will begin the production of miniLED panels in the fourth quarter.
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