lcd panel production cost factory
LCD panel prices have risen for 4 months in a row because of your home gaming? Since this year, the whole LCD panel market has smoked. Whether after the outbreak of the epidemic, LCD panel market prices rose for four months, or the panel giants in Japan and South Korea successively sold production lines, or the Chinese mainland listed companies frequently integrated acquisition, investment, and plant construction, all make the industry full of interesting.
LCD panel prices are already a fact. Since May this year, LCD panel prices have risen for four months in a row, making the whole industry chain dynamic. Why are LCD panels going up in price in a volatile 2020? The key factor lies in the imbalance between supply and demand.
The price of LCDS for large-size TVs of 70 inches or more hasn’t budged much. In addition, LTPS screens and AMOLED screens used in high-end phones have seen little or no increase in price.
As for October, LCD panel price increases are expected to moderate. The data shows that in October 32 inches or 2 dollars; Gains of 39.5 to 43 inches will shrink to $3;55 inches will fall back below $10; The 65-inch gain will narrow to $5.
During the epidemic, people stayed at home and had no way to go out for entertainment. They relied on TV sets, PCS, and game consoles for entertainment. After the resumption of economic work and production, the market of traditional home appliances picked up rapidly, and LCD production capacity was quickly digested.
However, due to the shutdown of most factories lasting 1-2 months during the epidemic period, LCD panel production capacity was limited, leading to insufficient production capacity in the face of the market outbreak, which eventually led to the market shortage and price increase for 4 consecutive months.
In fact, the last round of price rise of LCD panels was from 2016 to 2017, and its overall market price has continued to fall since 2018. Even in 2019, individual types have fallen below the material cost, and the whole industry has experienced a general operating loss. As a result, LCD makers have been looking for ways to improve margins since last year.
A return to a reasonable price range is the most talked about topic among panel makers in 2019, according to one practitioner. Some manufacturers for the serious loss of the product made the decision to reduce production or even stop production; Some manufacturers planned to raise the price, but due to the epidemic in 2020, the downstream demand was temporarily suppressed and the price increase was postponed. After the outbreak was contained in April, LCD prices began to rise in mid-to-late May.
In fact, the market price of LCD panels continued to decline in 2018-2019 because of the accelerated rise of China’s LCD industry and the influx of a large number of local manufacturers, which doubled the global LCD panel production capacity within a few years, but there was no suitable application market to absorb it. The result of excess capacity is oversupply, ultimately making LCD panel prices remain depressed.
Against this background, combined with the impact of the epidemic in 2020, the operating burden of LCD companies in Japan and South Korea has been further aggravated, and it is difficult to make profits in the production of LCD panels, so they have to announce the withdrawal of LCD business.
business in June 2022. In August, Sharp bought JDI Baishan, a plant in Ishikawa prefecture that makes liquid crystal display panels for smartphones. In early September, Samsung Display sold a majority stake in its SUZHOU LCD production plant to Starlight Electronics Technology, a unit of TCL Technology Group. LGD has not only pulled out of some of its production capacity but has announced that it will close its local production line in 2020. According to DSCC, a consultancy, the share of LCD production capacity in South Korea alone will fall from 19% to 7% between 2020 and 2021.
It is worth mentioning that in industry analysis, in view of the fact that Korean companies are good at using “dig through old bonus – selling high price – the development of new technology” the cycle of development mode, another 2020 out of the LCD production capacity, the main reason may be: taking the advantage of China’s expanding aggressively LCD manufacturers, Korean companies will own LCD panel production line hot sell, eliminating capacity liquid to extract its final value, and turning to the more profitable advantage of a new generation of display technologies, such as thinner, color display better OLED, etc. Samsung, for example, has captured more than 80% of the OLED market with its first-mover advantage.
From the perspective of production capacity, the launch of LCD tracks by major manufacturers in Japan and South Korea must reduce some production capacity in the short term, which to some extent induces market price fluctuations. In the long run, some of the Japanese and Korean LCD production capacity has been bought by Chinese manufacturers, coupled with frequent investment in recent years, the overall capacity is sure to recover as before, or even more than before. But now it will take time to expand the production layout, which more or less will cause supply imbalance, the industry needs to be cautious.
The LCD panel industry started in the United States and then gradually moved to Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. At present, the proportion of production capacity in The Chinese mainland has reached 52% in 2020, and there are leading LCD panel products in China represented by BOE, Huxing Optoelectronics. Meanwhile, the production capacity layout of BOE, Huike, Huxing Optoelectronics, and other manufacturers has been basically completed, making industrial integration a necessity.
On the one hand, South Korean enterprises out of the LCD track, the domestic factory horse enclosure, plant expansion action. While LCDs may not sell as well as “upstart” flexible screens, respondents believe they are still strong enough in the traditional home appliance market to warrant continued investment. Zhao Bin, general manager of TCL Huaxing Development Center, has said publicly that the next-generation display technology will be mature in four to five years, but the commercialization of products may not take place until a decade later. “LCD will still be the mainstream in this decade,” he said.
On the other hand, there is no risk of neck jam in China’s LCD panel industry, which is generally controllable. In mainland China, there will be 21 production lines capable of producing 32-inch or larger LCD panels by 2021, accounting for about two-thirds of the global total. In terms of the proportion of production capacity, the Chinese mainland accounted for 42% of the global LCD panel in 2019, 51% this year, and will continue to climb to 63% next year.
Of course, building factories and expanding production cannot be accomplished overnight. In the process of production capacity recovery, it is predicted that there will be several price fluctuations, and the cost may be passed on to the downstream LCD panel manufacturers or consumers when the price rises greatly, which requires continuous attention.
The statistic shows the manufacturing cost of a 55-inch ultra-high definition (UHD) TV panel from the first quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2017, broken down by technology. In the first quarter of 2017, the manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED UHD TV panel amounted to around 600 U.S. dollars per unit.Read moreManufacturing cost of a 55-inch UHD TV panel from 1st quarter 2015 to 2nd quarter 2017 (in U.S. dollars), by technologyCharacteristicLCDOLED---
Statista. (March 1, 2018). Manufacturing cost of a 55-inch UHD TV panel from 1st quarter 2015 to 2nd quarter 2017 (in U.S. dollars), by technology [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved January 07, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/784279/55-inch-uhd-tv-panel-manufacturing-cost-by-technology/
Statista. "Manufacturing cost of a 55-inch UHD TV panel from 1st quarter 2015 to 2nd quarter 2017 (in U.S. dollars), by technology." Chart. March 1, 2018. Statista. Accessed January 07, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/784279/55-inch-uhd-tv-panel-manufacturing-cost-by-technology/
Statista. (2018). Manufacturing cost of a 55-inch UHD TV panel from 1st quarter 2015 to 2nd quarter 2017 (in U.S. dollars), by technology. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: January 07, 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/784279/55-inch-uhd-tv-panel-manufacturing-cost-by-technology/
Statista. "Manufacturing Cost of a 55-inch Uhd Tv Panel from 1st Quarter 2015 to 2nd Quarter 2017 (in U.S. Dollars), by Technology." Statista, Statista Inc., 1 Mar 2018, https://www.statista.com/statistics/784279/55-inch-uhd-tv-panel-manufacturing-cost-by-technology/
Statista, Manufacturing cost of a 55-inch UHD TV panel from 1st quarter 2015 to 2nd quarter 2017 (in U.S. dollars), by technology Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/784279/55-inch-uhd-tv-panel-manufacturing-cost-by-technology/ (last visited January 07, 2023)
(2 November, 2017) – A major decrease in manufacturing cost gap between organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display and liquid crystal display (LCD) panel is expected to support the expansion of OLED TVs, according to new analysis from
analysis estimates that the total manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED ultra-high definition (UHD) TV panel -- at the larger end for OLED TVs -- stood at $582 per unit in the second quarter of 2017, a 55 percent drop from when it was first introduced in the first quarter of 2015. The cost is expected to decline further to $242 by the first quarter of 2021, IHS Markit said.
The manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED UHD TV panel has narrowed to 2.5 times that of an LCD TV panel with the same specifications, compared to 4.3 times back in the first quarter of 2015.
“Historically, a new technology takes off when the cost gap between a dominant technology and a new technology gets narrower,” said Jimmy Kim, principal analyst for display materials at IHS Markit. “The narrower gap in the manufacturing cost between the OLED and LCD panel will help the expansion of OLED TVs.”
However, it is not just the material that determines the cost gap. In fact, when the 55-inch UHD OLED TV panel costs were 2.5 times more than LCD TV panel, the gap in the material costs was just 1.7 times. Factors other than direct material costs, such as production yield, utilization rate, depreciation expenses and substrate size, do actually matter, IHS Markit said.
The total manufacturing cost difference will be reduced to 1.8 times from the current 2.5 times, when the yield is increased to a level similar to that of LCD panels. “However, due to the depreciation cost of OLED, there are limitations in cost reduction from just improving yield,” Kim said. “When the depreciation is completed, a 31 percent reduction in cost can be expected from now.”
by IHS Markit provides more detailed cost analysis of OLED panels, including details of boards, arrays, luminescent materials, encapsulants and direct materials such as driver ICs. The report also covers overheads such as occupancy rate, selling, general and depreciation costs. In addition, this report analyzes OLED panels in a wide range of sizes and applications.
Factors that may influence the price of a certain type of LCD include: screen size, viewing angle, maximum brightness, color display,resolution and frame rate.
Screen size: larger size display more, and larger size cost more, these’re common sense. For example, in last year’s iPhone 8P which used a 5.5-inch LCD screen, the display (including touchscreen) cost 52.5 dollars, while a 43-inch LCD TV cost 128 dollars.
Viewing angle: it’s the maximum angle at which a display can be viewed with acceptable visual performance. It’s measured from one direction to the opposite, giving a maximum of 180° for a flat, one-sided screen. Early LCDs had strikingly narrow viewing angles, for now most of the manufacturers have improved them to more than 160°.
Color display: in early or simple LCDs, only two or very few colors can be displayed. As the technology advances, TFT LCD can display up to 65536 colors.
As the diagram shows above, LCD module covers the most part of the cost of a LCD TV. Within LCD module, there’re still many components. In the following diagram we’ll show you the price breakdown of these components.
The third quarter in the year is usually the demand season of LCD module, as a result the price will be the highest. However, situation varies in different market.
Due to the massive investment and low cost of Chinese mainland manufacturer, the capacity of LCD module for TVs increases significantly, so the price of these modules stay pretty low for the past year.
In another aspect, technology innovations keep push the price of high-end LCD to a higher level. For many users that are planning to replace their old TVs, these high-end LCDs are tempting choices.
Actually, though LCD screen has many advantages, its average price is keep decreasing in the past years. New technology brings lower cost is one reason, a strong competitor called OLED is another.
Main difference between OLED and LCD is OLED can give out light itself, that is to say OLED screen can run at a lower load compared to LCD screen, at least it doesn’t need a backlight system.
According to the OLED Display Cost Model by IHS Markit, manufacturing cost of the 5.9-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel with notch design, as in the Apple iPhone X, is estimated to be $29. It is found to be 25 percent higher than manufacturing cost of full-display OLED panel without the notch design used in the 5.8-inch display for the Samsung Galaxy S9. Similar cost gap is also found in the thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD). Manufacturing cost of a 6-inch notch TFT-LCD panel is estimated to be $19, 20 percent higher than similar-sized non-notch, full-display LCD panel.
“Notch cutting should accompany yield loss, resulting in increases in manufacturing cost. In case of TFT-LCD, a notch design may push up the manufacturing cost even to the level of rigid, full-screen OLED’s,” said Jimmy Kim, Ph.D. and senior principal analyst for display materials at IHS Markit. “For OLED panels, cost increase caused by notch design seems to be even higher.”
Quarterly shipments of the iPhone X, Apple’s first smartphone model using OLED panels, have reportedly been smaller than previous iPhone models’ so far, mainly due to higher selling price, caused by expensive OLED panels. “Apple seems to be in the middle of manufacturing optimization,” Kim said.
“Eventually, manufacturing cost for notch OLED will fall more rapidly than that for notch TFT-LCD. The plastic substrate for OLED is not as brittle as glass used in TFT-LCD, so it should be easier to cut the notch, theoretically.”
The OLED Display Cost Model by IHS Markit includes manufacturing cost analysis and forecasts of OLED display panels in mass production for smartwatch, smartphone, tablet PC and TV.
Fans of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) televisions, like those marketed in the United States by LG Electronics, Sony and Bang & Olufsen, will be pleased to know that OLED panel production costs, and eventually sell-through prices, should help to make the format even more popular in the near future.
According to a study from international market research firm IHS Markit, the shrinking difference in manufacturing cost between OLED TV production and LED-LCD TVs should lead to significant expansion of OLED television production volume.
Helping this will be the start-up of new OLED panel production facilities in South Korea, by LG.Display, which is currently the world’s only producer of WRGB OLED panels used in the manufacture of consumer 4K OLED televisions, by LG Electronics and LG.Display customers Sony and B&O in the United States and Grundig, Konka, Loewe, Metz, Panasonic, Toshiba and others in other global regions.
A new IHS analysis on the “OLED Display Cost Model” estimates that the total manufacturing cost of a 55-inch OLED 4K Ultra HDTV panel averaged $582 per unit in the second quarter of 2017, which reflects a 55 percent drop from costs associated with the 4K UHD OLED televisions at the start of 2015.
According to the study, the manufacturing cost of a 55-inch 4K Ultra HD OLED panel has declined to 2.5 times that of an LCD TV panel with the same specifications, compared to 4.3 times back in the first quarter of 2015.
This is important, Jimmy Kim, IHS Markit principal materials analyst, said, because “historically, a new technology takes off when the cost gap between a dominant technology and a new technology gets narrower. The narrower gap in the manufacturing cost between the OLED and LCD panel will help the expansion of OLED TVs.”
Kim said it’s not just the cost of materials that determines the cost gap. In fact, when a 55-inch UHD OLED TV panel costs are 2.5 times more than a comparable LCD TV panel, the gap in the material costs is just 1.7 times. Other contributing factors include production yield, utilization rate, depreciation expenses and substrate size.
The study indicates the total manufacturing cost difference between OLED and LED-LCD 4K panels will be reduced to 1.8 times from the current 2.5 times when the yield is increased to a level similar to that of LCD panels.
“However, due to the depreciation cost of OLED, there are limitations in cost reduction from just improving yield,” Kim added. “When the depreciation is completed, a 31 percent reduction in cost can be expected from now.”
Flat-panel displays are thin panels of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying text, images, or video. Liquid crystal displays (LCD), OLED (organic light emitting diode) and microLED displays are not quite the same; since LCD uses a liquid crystal that reacts to an electric current blocking light or allowing it to pass through the panel, whereas OLED/microLED displays consist of electroluminescent organic/inorganic materials that generate light when a current is passed through the material. LCD, OLED and microLED displays are driven using LTPS, IGZO, LTPO, and A-Si TFT transistor technologies as their backplane using ITO to supply current to the transistors and in turn to the liquid crystal or electroluminescent material. Segment and passive OLED and LCD displays do not use a backplane but use indium tin oxide (ITO), a transparent conductive material, to pass current to the electroluminescent material or liquid crystal. In LCDs, there is an even layer of liquid crystal throughout the panel whereas an OLED display has the electroluminescent material only where it is meant to light up. OLEDs, LCDs and microLEDs can be made flexible and transparent, but LCDs require a backlight because they cannot emit light on their own like OLEDs and microLEDs.
Liquid-crystal display (or LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. They are usually made of glass but they can also be made out of plastic. Some manufacturers make transparent LCD panels and special sequential color segment LCDs that have higher than usual refresh rates and an RGB backlight. The backlight is synchronized with the display so that the colors will show up as needed. The list of LCD manufacturers:
Organic light emitting diode (or OLED displays) is a thin, flat panel made of glass or plastic used for electronically displaying information such as text, images, and moving pictures. OLED panels can also take the shape of a light panel, where red, green and blue light emitting materials are stacked to create a white light panel. OLED displays can also be made transparent and/or flexible and these transparent panels are available on the market and are widely used in smartphones with under-display optical fingerprint sensors. LCD and OLED displays are available in different shapes, the most prominent of which is a circular display, which is used in smartwatches. The list of OLED display manufacturers:
MicroLED displays is an emerging flat-panel display technology consisting of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. Like OLED, microLED offers infinite contrast ratio, but unlike OLED, microLED is immune to screen burn-in, and consumes less power while having higher light output, as it uses LEDs instead of organic electroluminescent materials, The list of MicroLED display manufacturers:
LCDs are made in a glass substrate. For OLED, the substrate can also be plastic. The size of the substrates are specified in generations, with each generation using a larger substrate. For example, a 4th generation substrate is larger in size than a 3rd generation substrate. A larger substrate allows for more panels to be cut from a single substrate, or for larger panels to be made, akin to increasing wafer sizes in the semiconductor industry.
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Instead, the company will concentrate on its production of OLEDand quantum dot displays, with employees from its LCD arm expected to be transferred to the latter business.
Figures provided by U.S market research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) suggest that the average price index of LCD panels will fall to 36.6 in September when measured against a score of 100 in January 2014, beating its previous record low of 41.5 in April.
Samsung Display"s profits from LCD production have been declining for several years due to increased competition from Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers, and the company was said to be considering withdrawing from the market in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic saw a surge in demand for LCD TVs, with the average price index peaking at a record high of 87 in June 2021, 58% higher than where it currently stands. Samsung Display postponed winding up its LCD operation to take advantage of this temporary boom which has now slumped considerably.
Samsung Electronics, the biggest customer of Samsung Display"s panels, has already found new suppliers for its LCDs having partnered up with Taiwanese display manufacturer AU Optronics Corp in 2020, followed by Chinese component producer BOE Technology Group earlier this year.
Earlier this month, Samsung Display"s fellow South Korean counterpart LG Display was reported to be considering its own exit from LCD panel production, according to The Korean Economic Daily.(opens in new tab) Insiders have speculated that LG Display is likely to cease its LCD operations favouring OLED production after noting that the company had cut back on its use of glass substrates at its LCD facilities.
The decision to close the LCD business, by Samsung Display, will be completed by June of 2022 as the company faces tough competition from its Chinese and Taiwanese counterparts, reports GizmoChina.
The company has decided to focus on manufacturing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and quantum dot (QD) displays, as OLED panels have started to become the norm in the smartphone market.
A recent Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) revealed that the price of an LCD is 36.6 per cent of what it used to be in January 2014, the component"s peak production period.
No investment plan details have since been announced, and the employees of the LCD business are expected to be transferred to the QD business, the report said.
Samsung Display had decided to close its LCD business in late 2020, but the plans were delayed at Samsung Electronics" request due to a sudden increase in the prices of LCD panels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Flat panel displays use different backplane technologies. Small and medium OLEDs for mobile phones use a low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) backplane which is created by laser annealing amorphous silicon (a-Si). OLED TVs use a metal oxide backplane. Both backplanes use deposited thin films which must be highly uniform and contamination free to maximize electrical performance. The OLEDs are evaporated or deposited and encapsulated to reduce degradation caused by water vapor and oxygen exposure. Encapsulation uses either strengthened glass or thin films, depending on whether the OLED is rigid or flexible. Dissimilarity of materials within the rigid and flexible stacks make cutting and singulation of individual display devices a challenge. The highly complex nature of this process can induce defects, decreasing throughput and yield.