[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] PNHTech announced on the 12th that it has signed a long-term exclusive supply contract for long-life OLED (organic light-emitting diode) materials with DuPont, the world's largest chemical company based in the United States.
PNHTech will supply long-life OLED materials to DuPont for seven years until October 2028. Initially, it is expected to receive $6 million (approximately 7.1 billion KRW) as an advance payment to support initial operating funds. The contract party is DuPont's Korean subsidiary (Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials Korea).
Founded in 1802, DuPont merged with Dow Chemical in 2017 and operates businesses in agriculture, material science, specialty products, and more. DuPont Electronics Materials, which handles OLED materials, supplies materials to both Samsung Display and LG Display. In particular, it has established Korea as a forward base for R&D and production, leading the global electronic materials market.
The long-life OLED materials jointly developed by PNHTech and DuPont significantly improve the lifespan and brightness of OLED displays. OLED emits light by itself, so unlike LCDs, it does not require a backlight, and it offers advantages such as excellent contrast ratio and high power efficiency, but it has had the drawback of a short lifespan.
OLED displays are increasingly applied in smartphones, TVs, laptops, monitors, smartwatches, automotive electronics, and more. The company explained that to replace the existing LCD market, it is necessary to continuously improve the lifespan and brightness of OLED.
PNHTech began developing materials to extend the lifespan of devices equipped with OLED displays in 2018. It was selected as a preliminary unicorn company for OLED materials in 2019 and succeeded in commercializing long-life OLED materials for the first time in the world in 2020.
PNHTech is developing long-life blue, red, and green materials that make up OLEDs respectively. The company plans to gradually expand the supply scope of materials and make it a long-term growth engine.
The display industry is paying attention to the fact that the contract period between PNHTech and DuPont is a long-term seven years. Usually, materials used in display mass production are changed annually and contracted on a short-term basis.
An industry official said, "This contract means that displays using long-life OLED materials will expand," adding, "DuPont can also receive exclusive long-term supply of materials that can lead changes in the display industry, and PNHTech has laid the foundation to achieve a quantum jump in performance."
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