LG Display has announced that the company's OLED production joint venture in Guangzhou, China has been approved by the Chinese government.
The joint venture for LG Display's new OLED panel production plant will be established with KRW 2.6 trillion (US$ 2.33 billion) in capital, of which LG Display will control a 70 percent share while the remaining 30 percent share will be owned by Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District.
The total investment is KRW 5 trillion (US$ 4.48 billion) and LG Display is currently constructing an Gen 8.5 (2,200mm x 2,500mm) OLED production facility.
The start of mass production is planned for the second half of 2019.
The Guangzhou OLED plant will mainly produce large-size OLED panels for TVs. LG Display will start producing 60,000 input sheets per month and will gradually ramp up to a maximum of 90,000 sheets per month.
Adding that to the production capacity of 70,000 input sheets per month from the company's plants in Paju, LG Display's total production capacity of large-size OLED panels will reach 130,000 sheets per month by the second half of 2019. This capacity will enable the company to ship up to 10 million 55-inch OLED TV panels on a yearly basis.
"LG Display welcomes the approval from the Chinese government. We will try to speed up our construction and mass production schedules as much as we can by leveraging the expertise and experience from our previous 8.5th generation OLED plant in order to provide OLED panels to our customers in a timely manner."
"We will accelerate the transformation of our business structure to focus on OLEDs and will continually lead the global display industry."
Dr. Sang Beom Han, CEO and Vice Chairman of LG Display