Samsung Display have decided to put off additional investment in Flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) Panel production factory (A3) and are currently reviewing whether to produce flexible panels by changing A2 factory. They think that it is more reasonable and financially beneficial to invest in current A2 Line rather than A3 extension that have not secured stable yields.
Samsung Display is contemplating recently about how much supplement investment scale should be to change part of A2 production capacity into Flexible OLED Line. It can be seen as a countermeasure when the demand for Flexible OLED is increasing while the demand for Glass Substrate (Rigid) OLED is decreasing.
The company currently is producing Rigid OLED Panels at the 5.5 Generation (1300x1500mm) A2 factory and Flexible OLED Panels at the 6 Generation (1500x1850) A3 factory. A3 factory had already gone through a trial operation after the first investment; the second investment was going to be processed, but it’s currently at a halt.
Samsung Display have been producing Dual-Edge Panels that are loaded on Galaxy S6 Edge at some parts of A2 Line. But they have decided to extend A3 factory after seeing that they can’t match the ever-increasing supply and possible application of Flexible OLED Edge Panel on Galaxy Note 5.
Business circle predicted that both investments in changing A2 factory and extending A3 factory will occur together as demand for Flexible OLED Panel is continuously increasing. Just about a month ago, it was confirmed that A2 factory was going to change into a size of 10,000 sheets of rough blanks per month. Also A3 received second investment to change the size to 15,000 sheets per month.
삼성에 정통한 한 관계자는 “A3과 A2 공장 플렉시블 OLED 생산설비를 동시에 증설할 예정이었으나 최근 A3 공장 2단계 증설을 보류하고 A2 공장을 월 3만장 규모로 확대 전환하는 것을 놓고 재검토에 들어갔다”고 말했다.
A person who is familiar with Samsung said “Samsung was planning to extend additional Flexible OLED production facilities for A3 and A2 factories at the same time. But it has decided to reexamine the process by halting second step of building extension for A3 factory and expanding A2 factory by size of 30,000 sheets per month.”
Change in investment plans by Samsung Display depends on difference of importance between Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Samsung was planning to ship about 50 million Galaxy S6 series and 10~12 million of them were going to be Galaxy Edge. But because Galaxy Edge was receiving all the spotlight, Samsung decided to increase production greatly.
“We can’t confirm any details on production plans.” Samsung Display said about the investment in changing A2 Line.
Staff Reporter Sung, Hyunhee | sunghh@etnews.com