Investment announcements for display equipment, which were hesitant for a while, have been flooding the China market the last two months. The investments were mainly focused on Low Temperature Poly-silicon (LTPS) and Oxide TFT based high-definition Liquid-crystal display (LCD) equipment development field. South Korean equipment businesses started establishing local supporting centers as one way to catch up to China.
Korea Display Industry Association (KDIA) announced on March 1st that bidding announcements for last January and February in China’s display market were 54 and 81. There were about 2 bid activities a day excluding the weekends, which shows how active China’s panel business investments were.
Related official had said, “People were stagnant in investments last year so this phenomenon is showing how the bidding is concentrated in the earlier part of the year. It seems such syndrome will continue through out the first half of the year so equipment businesses in Korea will be trying to draw Chinese customers as much as possible.”
Tianma was the first one to start this equipment investment run. Last January 1st, Tianma made a bidding announcement related to purchasing Thin-film transistor (TFT) and color filter exposure equipment. Furthermore, Excimer Laser Annealing (ELA) equipment, and other equipment were additionally requested. Later in February, they made bidding on constructing 6th generation LTPS factories.
BOE made move as well. 24 bids in January and 15 bids in February were made. They made the effort to purchase equipment from several areas and provinces in China.
CSOT has stepped up investing in 6th LTPS equipment. They made a bid in January to create factory in Wuhan area, and made bids in February for equipment needed in factory.
Equipment businesses in Korea are getting busier after hearing the news that Chinese businesses are planning extension in new equipment. They have reinforced their local corporate body and service centers so that they may effectively meet their customers’ needs.
Current bidding situation of Chinese display panel businesses
Staff Reporter Sung, Hyun-hee sunghh@etnews.com