Samsung Display had planned to withdraw entirely from the LCD panel market last year but the company shifted its withdrawal date due to a surge in LCD panel demands. The company later set March 2021 to shut down the LCD business but that also didn’t materialize, perhaps due to demands. The company is now looking to totally shut down LCD panel production in 2022 and has commenced steps to actualize the plan.
A report from South Korea indicates that the tech giant has already switched multiple production lines to OLED panels, and currently only one LCD panel production line is still running. The report indicates that the company discontinued its L7-1 production line in 2016, converting it to a 6th-generation OLED production line that was then renamed the A4-1 production line.
This year, the company is said to have discontinued the L7-2 LCD production line in the first quarter of this year. The line is also being converted to the 6th generation OLED production line, which will be renamed the A4E production line. Also discontinued is the L8-1 production line which stopped LCD production in the first quarter of the year. The company is also shopping for buyers for the LCD production equipment that is lying unused inside the factories.
The report also indicates that the South Korean company only operates the L8-2 LCD panel production line located in Asan, South Korea. However, this production line that produces LCD panels for TV and IT products is not expected to run for a long time. Samsung has set a total exit timeline for 2022.
Recall that Samsung Display operates an LCD panel factory in Suzhou but that factory was sold to TCL’s China Star Optoelectronics in August 2020.
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(via)
