LGD's TV Business Revenue Half from OLED Last Year... Profit Turnaround Visible This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] As the global OLED TV market is expected to nearly double compared to the previous year, a positive signal has been lit for LG Display, which supplies OLED panels, to turn profitable. With LG Electronics making a bold move for the popularization of OLED this year, the expansion of LG Display's OLED business is also expected to accelerate.

According to the industry on the 5th, LG Display's OLED sales ratio within the TV business division last year was 49%, rising about 15 percentage points compared to the previous year. Securities firms expect the OLED ratio, which has risen to about half, to expand to 61% this year, with OLED sales in the TV business division surpassing LCD.

The mobile and automotive plastic OLED (P-OLED) business division already turned profitable in the fourth quarter of last year, thanks to the strong sales of Apple iPhone 12. This year, the OLED business division, including the TV sector, is expected to turn profitable, raising expectations for an overall annual profit for the company.

LG Display started operations at its Guangzhou plant in China in July last year, doubling the production capacity of its main product, 8.5-generation OLED, from about 80,000 sheets per month to 140,000 sheets per month. With production capacity in place, the company plans to significantly increase OLED panel supply from about 4.5 million units last year to 7 to 8 million units this year.

LG Display has prepared a full lineup of panel sizes ranging from the 40-inch class to the 80-inch class to suit various TV products. It showcased its technological prowess by introducing the world's first 'rollable TV' with a screen that rolls up, and earlier this year, it unveiled a next-generation OLED TV panel with 20% higher luminous efficiency compared to the previous generation.

OLED is a material that emits light by itself when an electric current flows through it. When applied to TV panels, it eliminates the need for a separate backlight, enabling the creation of thin and flexible panels. The rollable TV was also made possible by utilizing OLED technology. It is recognized as the best technology due to its superior contrast ratio and black expression compared to conventional LCDs, delicate image quality control, fast response time, and wide viewing angles.

According to market research firm Omdia, the OLED TV market is expected to grow to 5.6 million units this year, a 60% increase from the previous year. The number of global TV brands selling OLED TVs is also expanding annually, with 19 manufacturers in Europe, North America, Japan, China, and other regions adding OLED TVs to their lineups. From LG Display's perspective, as the only company in the world capable of supplying extra-large OLEDs, the increasing number of customers is positive.

Additionally, with Samsung Electronics expected to enter the OLED TV market next year by launching QD-OLED TVs, the market size is anticipated to expand further. Jeong Won-seok, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, analyzed, "If major TV brands shift their business strategies to OLED, the value of LG Display's OLED TV panel business will also be re-evaluated."