LG Display aims to ship 5 million OLED panels
Q3 will remain difficult
LG Display is aiming to ship 5 million large-sized OLED panels this year, the company said on Thursday at its conference call for second quarter earnings.
Company CFO Seo Dong hee said the COVID-19 pandemic remained a risk but it will react to the market situation to find sales opportunities.
5 million is around 50% higher than LG Display’s last year shipment of 3.3 million but is much less than its initial goal of 6 million announced before the virus outbreak.
The company’s 8.5th generation(2200mm x 2500mm) OLED panel factory at Guangzhou, China also begun operations, LG said. Seo said the company plans to reach the plant’s full operation capacity of 60,000 glass sheets per month quickly.
Coupled with LG Display’s factory in Paju, which can produce 70,000 glass sheets per month, the company will have a production capacity of 130,000 glass sheets.
The CFO didn’t comment on the possibility of the company’s losses becoming steeper going forward or when the new P10 line at Paju will start construction.
Some parts suppliers to LG previously told TheElec they expected some update on the status of the 10.5th generation(2940mm x 3370mm) schedule.
Seo said third quarter profits will improve over the second quarter but normalization __ that is turning a profit __ will take all three core businesses to show results. LG Display is aiming to restructure its Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) business, turnaround its P-OLED business and expand large-sized OLED panel shipment. However, demand for large-sized OLED panels have been slow.
The CFO said P-OLED will get a boost from its client’s new smartphone launches later this year.
Seo said the company will also continue to strengthen its LCD line-up for both IT devices and TVs.
LG Display has marked 6 straight quarter of loss as of the second quarter. It posted 517 billion won in operating losses and sales of 5.3 trillion won. IT devices accounted for 52% of its sales while TV accounted for 23%.