Demand is growing! LGD will start production of pure-cut 48-inch OLED panels to compete with Samsung's Mini LED TVs

LG Display (LGD) will invest in 48-inch pure-cut panels at its OLED production line in Paju, Gyeonggi Province to meet the growing demand for mid-sized TVs in Europe, Japan and other regions.

According to Korean media daily.hankooki, LGD plans to partially start production of pure-cut 48-inch OLED panels in the Paju P8 production line from May. This will also be another medium-sized OLED mass production line outside the Guangzhou plant.

It is speculated that the production of 48-inch OLED panels will see a substantial increase from the second half of this year. LGD previously mainly produced 48-inch panels in its Guangzhou plant, and the Guangzhou plant used the MMG process to mix 77-inch and 48-inch panels. The MMG process is a method of cutting panels of different sizes on the same glass substrate at the same time.

This time, LGD plans to start production of pure-cut 48-inch OLED panels at its Paju plant outside Guangzhou in May. Pure-cutting is a process that cuts out panels of the same size on a substrate, which has an advantage in yield compared to mixed-cutting.

When pure 48-inch panels are cut, one substrate can be cut into 8 panels (8.5-generation line substrate). Previously, Guangzhou cut two 77-inch and 48-inch panels from one substrate.

The proportion of 48-inch TV OLED panels of LGD will also increase in the future. Among the OLED panels shipped by LGD, 55-inch and 65-inch panels account for the largest proportion. According to the analysis of market research agency UBI Research in the second half of last year, the proportion of 55-inch OLED panels put into production by LGD was 50%, 65-inch was 30%, 48-inch and 77-inch were 10% each.

LGD's plan to expand sales of medium-sized panels is not only to lower the price threshold of OLED TVs, but also to achieve this year's more aggressive OLED panel shipment target. LGD plans to ship a total of 7 million to 8 million OLED TV panels this year.

However, Samsung Electronics is also gearing up to launch a large-scale marketing promotion of Mini LED TVs this year. The industry speculates that the OLED TV camp, including LG Electronics, will be negatively affected. LG Electronics also plans to sell Mini LED TV "QNED TV" starting this year. According to UBI Research, LGD's OLED shipments this year are about 4.5 million units.

Industry insiders commented: If LG's OLED fails to kill Samsung's Mini LED TV in the cradle, its price position in future competition will become increasingly disadvantageous. For this reason, LG Electronics and LGD plan to launch an aggressive marketing campaign for OLED products starting in the second half of the year.

A person related to LGD said regarding the Paju 48-inch OLED shipment plan: No decision has been made yet.