Source: China Electronics News, Electronic Information Industry Network
"Evergrande, the biggest semiconductor display industry, will be concentrated on several giants. In the future, there will be three in this industry in the world, and it will be almost the same." Chen Yanshun, chairman of BOE Group, once said in an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News. "A tree cannot grow in the sky." This is the judgment of Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Technology. An industry cannot stand out from a single enterprise, but it needs to continuously form alliances and develop in a coordinated manner.
is at the time of the integration of the display industry, the competitive landscape is being reshaped, and the concentration of the industry will gradually increase. In the field of large sizes, whether it is LCD, OLED, or new display technology track, BOE, TCL Huaxing, Samsung Display and LGD are all panel giants with strong comprehensive strength. David Hsieh, senior director of Omida Display Research, told reporters that in the field of large size, complex cooperation and competition will arise between the above four groups at the same time.
LCD starts a battle for leading position
In the LCD field, the strength of mainland China panel factories is constantly increasing. Qunzhi Consulting data shows that from the perspective of LCD TV panel production capacity pattern, starting from 2020, mainland Chinese manufacturers account for more than 50%, and will account for nearly 70% of the market in the future, with production capacity highly concentrated; while Korean manufacturers quickly shrinking to less than 20%, or even further shrinking to less than 5%; the share of Taiwanese and Japanese manufacturers in my country is stable at about 30%.
In December 2017, BOE Hefei G10.5 TFT-LCD production line products were offline and delivered to customers; in the first quarter of 2019, TCL Huaxing G10.5 production line also achieved mass production. So far, two panel companies in China have operated G10.5 production lines and have begun to compete head-on with overseas companies in the field of large-size panels. The improvement in technology and yield has also increased the supply of large-size panels, especially 65-inch and 75-inch panels.
Omdia data shows that in the second quarter of 2020, BOE continued to maintain its leading position in shipments of large-size LCD panels. BOE leads with 28% shipment volume and 21% shipment area share, followed by Qunchuang Optoelectronics with 15% and TCL Huaxing with 13% shipment area share. TCL Huaxing ranks fifth in the shipment volume ranking of large-size LCD panels, but second in the shipment area in the second quarter of 2020. As TCL Huaxing T6's 10.5 generation production line has increased the production of LCD TV panels, and by the end of this year, a T7's 10.5 generation production line will begin mass production climbing. In the near future, Huaxing Optoelectronics will become a competitor with a scale similar to BOE.
Korean manufacturers plan to withdraw from LCD production capacity, and the large-size shipment scale has shown a shrinking trend, falling out of the top five. Today, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics' LCD panel supply is more dependent on Chinese panel manufacturers, especially BOE and TCL Huaxing. To this end, Samsung Display has invested in TCL Huaxing's 10.5-generation line panel factory, and TCL Huaxing has also invested in Samsung Display's 8.5-generation line factory.
htmlOn August 28, TCL Technology issued an announcement stating that TCL Huaxing plans to acquire 60% of the equity of Suzhou Samsung Electronics LCD Display Technology Co., Ltd. and 100% of the equity of Suzhou Samsung Display Co., Ltd. for US$1.08 billion (about RMB 7.622 billion). At the same time, Samsung Display will increase its capital to TCL Huaxing with a consideration of US$739 million (about RMB 5.213 billion) of 60% of the equity of Suzhou Samsung Electronics LCD Display Technology Co., Ltd. After the capital increase, Samsung Display's shareholding in TCL Huaxing increased from 5.02% to 12.33%, becoming the second largest shareholder of TCL Huaxing. David Hsieh said that with the financial support of TCL Technology Group, TCL Huaxing is gradually challenging BOE's leadership in LCD TV panel production capacity. On the other hand, BOE is also considering merging with China Electric Panda's LCD factory. This alliance will prevent TCL Huaxing from taking over China Electric Panda's LCD factory and expanding its capacity share.OLED different routes will start
large-size OLED technology routes are mainly divided into three major routes: relatively mature and mass-produced WOLED, printing OLED technology currently in the early stage of industrialization, and QD-OLED, which is still in the technical research and development stage. According to TrendBand data, LGD has 4 production lines, all of which are evaporated OLEDs; Samsung Display has 2 production lines, one is evaporated technology and the other is printing technology; BOE has one evaporated production line; TCL Huaxing has currently planned three printing OLED production lines.
Samsung Display and LGD are turning to OLED panels in full swing.Samsung Display focuses on the quantum dot QD-OLED technology route and maintains its leading position. It is reported that Samsung Display will start trial production of QD-OLED panels in the first quarter of 2021, and plans to conduct formal production in the second quarter, with a planned production capacity of 30,000 pieces per month.
, and LGD Guangzhou 8.5th generation WOLED panel factory has achieved mass production, with a monthly production capacity of about 60,000 pieces. Together with the monthly production capacity of 70,000 pieces of glass substrates in the Pazhou factory in South Korea, the overall monthly production capacity will reach 130,000 pieces.
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and TCL TVs are also competing in the TV terminal market. David Hsieh said that in terms of quantity, Samsung ships 5 million QLED TVs every year; LG Display also targets 5 million WOLED TV panels per year. Samsung QLED TVs perform well with the support of Open-Cell panels from various display manufacturers, while LGD intends to expand its WOLED TV panel customer base for long-term sustainable development. In addition, TCL is the top three LCD TV manufacturers in the world. Affected by the low price of LCD TVs, WOLED TV retail performance in the first half of 2020 was poor, affecting the long-term expansion of LGD WOLED TV panel production capacity.
Therefore, from the TV terminal market to the panel market, although the competition between several giants is fierce, it also breeds opportunities for cooperation. For example, BOE is also developing WOLED evaporation technology. Omdia estimates that LGD may form an alliance with BOE to produce large-sized OLED panels, and the two parties will obtain some financial support through exchange technology.
In the field of printing OLED, TCL Huaxing and BOE are investing in large-size printing RGB OLEDs. TCL Huaxing and Japan's JOLED company have launched in-depth technical cooperation in the field of printing OLED. It is reported that TCL Huaxing will invest 46 billion yuan to build the world's first 8.5-generation inkjet printing OLED production line.
From the perspective of potential competitive cooperation relationships in the future, TCL Huaxing and BOE hope to gain an advantageous position in the field of large-size OLED panels by relying on the acceleration and efforts of inkjet printing OLEDs in competition with Korean companies to seize the high ground for OLED innovation, especially in the field of large-size OLED panels. Ouyang Zhongcan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that printing OLEDs are expected to be put into mass production in the next 2 to 3 years, and my country and South Korea are in a parallel relationship.
Therefore, in the field of large-size OLED, the competitive trend between WOLED, QD-OLED and printed OLED will gradually become obvious in the future.
Expanding the comparative advantage of benefits is the focus of competition
The layout of next-generation display technology is also the focus of competition among many manufacturers. Mini LED, Micro LED, windable printing OLED (IJP-OLED), transparent display, etc. are all key development directions for future display.
Take Mini LED as an example. It has been doing more and its popularity has skyrocketed recently. In early August this year, TCL released a Mini LED backlit TV. TCL Huaxing and BOE both said that its glass-based Mini LED is expected to be mass-produced in the second half of this year. Samsung expects to launch Mini LED TV products next year and plans to produce 2 million units next year. Within next year, Mini LED will cause a new round of competition.
However, no matter what the technical route choice or the market competition and cooperation relationship, efficiency competition will become the focus of the display industry. Hu Chunming, executive deputy secretary-general of the LCD Branch of the China Optical Optoelectronics Industry Association, said in an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News that we should maintain strategic determination and be clear-headed that the focus of competition in the future should be efficiency rather than scale, especially in the LCD field. Mainland panel manufacturers have initially formed comparative advantages in LCD display technology, but they are mainly reflected in production capacity, shipment volume and output value, and are still at a disadvantage in product added value. Therefore, industry enterprises should take the primary goal of expanding comparative advantages, especially comparative benefits.
Senior analyst at Qunzhi Consulting TV panel research also said. The formation of the LCD "dual giant" pattern will increase production capacity, and the regulation flexibility of the panel supply side will be stronger and the range will be greater. However, the continuous profitability problems faced by LCD TV are gradually becoming prominent, and it is expected that the production capacity of panel manufacturers will be tilted towards highly profitable products.
In the future, Chinese panel manufacturers should continue to increase investment in technology research and development. On the one hand, they can improve LCD picture quality performance and narrow the product gap with OLED; on the other hand, they can increase the research and reserves of OLED technology in the field of large sizes.
From the perspective of competitive relationship, David Hsieh said that Samsung Display may not want LGD to cooperate closely with BOE, and BOE may not be happy to see Samsung Display and TCL Huaxing Alliance being too strong.The strategic adjustments of either party will have a significant impact on the panel industry ecosystem and the panel supply chain.
