Polarizers are in short supply, BenQ Materials improves its price and production efficiency

It is reported that in order to cope with the tight supply of polarizers, BenQ Materials has increased the quotation of its polarizer products for 32-inch LCD panels while keeping its three polarizer production lines running at full capacity.

ZC Chen, chairman of BenQ Materials, pointed out that since most upstream material suppliers have been conservative about capacity growth in recent years, while mainland China's flat panel manufacturers have been actively expanding their production capacity, this tight supply trend is expected to continue until 2019 or even 2020; at the same time, key materials for the production of polarizers, including PET (polyester), protective films, release films and PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) films, are in short supply.

Taiwan-based Cheng Mei Materials Technology is the only local polarizer producer that has expanded its production capacity at present, but the company's new capacity will start in the fourth quarter of 2019, when the company's first 2.5-meter-wide polarizer production line will begin commercial operation.

LG Chem is also expanding its polarizer production capacity, but the company's output increase is mainly to supply internal demand.

Chen revealed that BenQ Materials plans to improve its production efficiency by breaking through some technical bottlenecks and increase its production capacity by 5% in 2019; in addition, BenQ Materials will continue to focus on developing high-profit polarizer products for applications such as outdoor display devices, 8K monitors, foldable smartphones and automobiles.

Chen estimates that high-margin polarizer products accounted for 10% of BenQ Materials' total sales in 2018, a proportion that could climb to 20% in 2019.