LG Display promises to beef up safety in light of gas leak

LG Display CEO said on Tuesday that the company will beef up its safety management standard going forward.

Company CEO Jeong Ho-young’s comment at its shareholders’ meeting comes after a worker died following a gas leak at one of the firm’s plant in South Korea.

Jeong said the company was still investigating the cause of the gas peak on January at the Paju plant. But LG Display will use the incident to fundamentally innovate the safety management systems in its facilities, the CEO stressed.

On the firm’s business operations, Jeong reiterated that the company will work expand the supply of OLED display panels to the market.

LG Display aim to make large-sized OLED panels mainstream in the TV market, supply more plastic OLED for mobile device and restructure its liquid crystal display (LCD) business, the CEO said.

The South Korean panel maker will strengthen its TV portfolio as well as expand OLED application to other sectors, he said.

Its OLED pant in Guangzhou, China begin operation in July and this has secured the company with a production capacity to make OLED panels mainstream, the CEO said.

In mobile OLED, the company reestablished relationship with a strategic customer __ meaning Apple __ last year, Jeong said. This year LG Display will aim to widen its gap with followers to lead the market, the CEO said.

In LCD, the company will offer high specification and premium IT panels for profitability, he added.

Last year, LG Display recorded 24.23 trillion won in sales and 70.3 billion won in operating loss. Sales increased 3.2% from a year prior. The rate of loss was much smaller than in 2019, when the company recorded 1.35 trillion won in operating loss.

Sales from OLED accounted for 49% of the sales from its TV business, a surge from 34% in 2019.