Chengdu gets BOE's $8.8 billion diode unit

Chinese semiconductor display manufacturer BOE Technology Group Co Ltd said it will invest 63 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) to set up a new active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or AMOLED production line in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The display giant signed an investment cooperation agreement on an 8.6th generation AMOLED production line with Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone on Wednesday, mainly to produce high-end touchscreens used in electronic devices like laptops and tablets.

The project will focus on the production of medium-sized AMOLED panels, with a design capacity of 32,000 glass substrates (at 2290 mm x 2620 mm) per month, and is expected to achieve mass production in the fourth quarter of 2026, said the company.

First of its kind in China, the new production line will be capable of processing substrate with larger sizes, enhancing the efficiency of slicing medium-sized products and reducing production costs, the company said.

Additionally, by adopting new OLED display technology, products from this new production line will have lower energy consumption and longer life span, which could better meet the usage demands of medium-sized IT products, BOE said.

Industry experts said the company's latest move will further boost the development of flexible OLED industrial clusters in Southwest China.

BOE has already invested in a number of OLED display projects in the region, including three sixth-generation flexible AMOLED production lines in Chengdu and Mianyang in Sichuan province, and Chongqing.

Xie Ling, managing director of the Southwestern China region at CBRE, a United States-based commercial real estate company, said the display industry in Sichuan, which is mainly located in the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone, is taking the lead globally. The province produced nearly 20 percent of the world's flexible screens in 2022, she said.

"The next-generation production line of BOE will definitely attract an increasing number of upstream and downstream enterprises to Chengdu, driving the development of the entire industrial chain," Xie said.

Local officials said upon completion, the project, which is the largest single industrial project in terms of investment volume in Sichuan province, is expected to make Chengdu the largest flexible display panel production base in the country.

Official data showed the high-tech zone is home to more than 50 enterprises and over 20,000 professionals in the new display industry. It has established a complete industry chain covering glass substrates, luminescent materials, photo-masks, optical films, panel manufacturing and terminal applications like mobile phones and automotive displays.

OLED is a relatively new technology and part of the latest innovations in displays. Compared with traditional liquid crystal displays or LCDs, it has a fast response rate, wide viewing angles, super high-contrast images and richer colors.

As consumers' demand for lighter, thinner and more portable laptops and tablets keeps stimulating the development of flexible, foldable and even free-form display panels, this trend brings vast market prospects for medium-sized OLED display products.

Data from market research company Display Supply Chain Consultants showed that shipments of OLED screens used in high-end IT market will increase to 44 million units in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 51 percent.