LED and Display Market

The leading LED chip company’s sapphire substrates are mainly self-made, which has less cost impact and is expected to fully benefit. Most of the major LED manufacturers in the industry use sapphire substrates and are mainly self-made. The main representatives are Nichia, OSRAM Opto, Lumileds, Seoul Semi, Epistar and Sanan Optoelectronics, etc. Sanan Optoelectronics promotes LED substrates in Anxi, Fujian. The bottom production line and related supporting facilities, with an investment of up to CNY7B, have been put into operation in 2013. Through the integration of upstream sapphire substrate materials, LED chip manufacturers can effectively integrate internal resources, accumulate technology, and form product groups. The increase in sapphire substrate prices has limited impact on the cost of chip leaders. (Minsheng Securities report)

The market share of the top 5 manufacturers in 2020 is 72%, and the market share of the top 8 manufacturers is nearly 90%. The market structure tends to be concentrated. In recent years, the proportion of leading production capacity has steadily increased, and the total output value of San’an, HC Semitek, and Aoyang in China has increased from 44% in 2016 to 71% in 2018. Under the new format of the LED industry, the capacity construction of leading enterprises is mainly concentrated in high-end areas such as Mini / Micro LED. ( Minsheng Securities report)

Regarding the division of Mini LED and Micro LED, there is no strict definition. The industry generally regards the size of 75μm as the boundary between the two, 75–300μm is Mini LED, and the smaller is Micro LED. Micro LED is generally used directly for LED direct display, while Mini LED is mainly used as LCD backlight source to improve display quality in addition to LED direct display. ( Minsheng Securities report)

Since 2017, with the continuous investment of Mainland China in the Gen 8.5 and Gen 10.5 production lines, the global LCD panel production capacity has gradually increased. According to IHS, Mainland China has surpassed South Korea in 2018, becoming the largest source of production capacity for LCD display panels. LCD TV panel shipments are expected to rise to 57% in 2020. In the future, large-size LCD displays will be dominated by Chinese manufacturers. ( Founder Securities report)

Samsung Display’s sales from smartphone OLED panel will exceed USD5B in 1Q21, according to Omdia. In 4Q20, 62.8% of smartphones will use OLED panels, Omdia said. LCD panels will take up 31.8%. ( Gizmo China, The Elec)

According to Omdia, based on substrate calculation, the mass production capacity of Mainland China’s Gen-6 flexible AMOLED in 2020 will be 105K pieces per month. Approximately 75K pieces of flexible AMOLED and 15K pieces of rigid AMOLED will enter the supply chain, and panel investment is planned for early 2021. Chinese rigid AMOLED suppliers will enter the supply chain of first-tier brands. At the same time, flexible AMOLED suppliers will face serious low-cost competition in 2021. ( 199IT)

LG is introducing 48" Bendable Cinematic Sound OLED (CSO) display, which can be used as a conventional flatscreen TV or transformed into a display with a curvature radius of 1,000R (bent up to a radius of 1,000mm, basically). LG claims the display has a response time of 0.1ms and a refresh rate of 120Hz, ideal for PC and next-gen console gaming. ( Pocket-Lint, Business Korea, The Verge, IT Home)

Originally published at http://www.instantflashnews.com on January 4, 2021.