BOE Technology Group, the world's largest LCD panel maker announced that it will stop LCD capacity investment as low prices for LCD monitors cause serious losses for manufacturers.
In the past two years, Chinese companies have invested heavily in the field of LCD panels, which has increased the share of Chinese LCD panels from less than 30% in 2017 to 45% now and is expected to exceed 50% by the end of the year.
In the past two years, BOE has surpassed LGD to become the world's largest LCD panel manufacturer.
The rise of Chinese manufacturers in the LCD field has succeeded in grabbing the market with low prices. This has also led to the loss of all LCD manufacturers. At present, the price of 4K 55-inch panels has fallen to less than 100 US dollars. Loss puzzle.
BOE has the same problem. Revenue is still growing, but net profit has fallen sharply.
As LCD panels become increasingly unprofitable, companies such as Samsung, LGD and Japan's Matsushita have either significantly reduced LCD production lines or simply exited the LCD field.
Chinese companies will also reduce LCD capacity investment. Among them, Chen Yanshun, chairman of BOE, has also announced that he will stop investing in LCD production lines in the future, although he expects the LCD industry to pick up in Q1 or early Q2 next year.
At present, LCD panels are still the main source of income for BOE. Stopping investment does not mean giving up LCDs immediately, but it means that there will be no significant investment in LCD capacity in the future, because BOE will shift its investment focus to higher-end OLEDs, Mini LEDs and Micro LEDs Panel area.
Currently, BOE has three sixth-generation flexible AMOLED plants, namely the Chengdu plant that was mass-produced and shipped in 2017, the Mianyang plant that was mass-produced and shipped in July this year, and the Chongqing plant that began construction last year.
Among them, the Chengdu factory AMOLED panel has been used in at least 10 smartphones, covering Huawei, OPPO, vivo and other brands. BOE predicts that this year's flexible AMOLED panel production capacity will reach 20 million pieces, with a global share of 18%.