According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Sumitomo Chemical plans to invest 20 billion yen (about $165 million USD) to increase its OLED touch panel production capacity at its Pyeongtaek factory by 40%. The new production line will be able to produce touch panels on glass substrates - and also on plastic ones for bendable displays.
Sumitomo's current capacity enables it to produce around 200 million touch panels per year for OLED displays specifically, supplying panels mainly for Samsung Display. Sumitomo is expecting a rapid expansion of the OLED market and is getting ready to increased OLED touch panel demand.
Besides its touch-panel business, Sumitomo is also the leading PLED developer. In January 2015 Sumitomo signed an OLED Technology License Agreement with Universal Display, who granted Sumitomo license rights to manufacture and sell solution-processed OLED lighting products. Sumitomo also announced a non-exclusive key partnership with Kateeva to pair Sumitomo's P-OLED materials to Kateeva's YieldJet OLED ink-jet printing platform.
