Chinese panel makers see their supply increase by 8 times
Samsung is expected to procure 6.5 million units of smartphone OLED panels from Chinese display panel makers BOE and CSOT this year, according to Mizuho Securities.
This will be approximately eight times the amount it procured last year __ 800,000 units __ from the two companies, Mizuho Securities analyst Yasuo Nakane said at a conference in Busan, South Korea hosted by analyst firm UBI Research.
Samsung will procure 3.5 million units from BOE and 3 million units from COST, the analyst said.
According to Nakane, Samsung is expected to procure a total of 155.5 million units of smartphone OLED panels this year. It will procure 149 million units, or 96% of the total, from subsidiary Samsung Display, with the remaining 4% from BOE and COST.
Meanwhile, last year, Samsung had procured a total of 140.8 million units, with 99% of that from Samsung Display.
Though shares of BOE and CSOT within Samsung’s OLED supply chain are still small, it is expected to continuously grow going forward.
Samsung Display had been the exclusive supplier of OLED panels to Samsung up to 2020.
According to TheElec sources, the pair had taken part in the development last year of OLED panels aimed at the 2022-model Galaxy A73, the top-tier model in the Galaxy A series.
It is highly likely that BOE and CSOT will be seeing their supply to Samsung increase thanks to A73.
COST had also last year taken part in the development of OLED panels for legacy models of Samsung’s Galaxy M series aimed at the Indian market.
Meanwhile, BOE is also aggressively aiming to supply more OLED panels to Apple against rivals Samsung Display and LG Display.
At the conference, Nakane noted that Apple is expected to procure 223 million units of smartphone OLED panels this year.
This will be an increase of 40 million units from last year’s 181.5 million units, he said.
Out of the 2022 total, Cupertino is expected to procure 137 million units, or 67%, from Samsung Display, 55 million units, or 25%, from LG Display and 31 million units, or 14%, from BOE, the Mizuho Securities analyst said.
