Financial - Page 23

In October 2019 Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. SDC was supposed to start the plan in 2019, but according to a report from China the Company is delaying its initial investment. Originally mass production was supposed to begin in Q1 2021, but this may happen later if the investment is delayed.

It seems as if equipment makers expected to receive orders for production equipment, but that did not happen. The report says that Samsung decided to make personnel changes and transfer in January 2020 and only after these changes will the company finalize its investment plan in the new OLED TV fab.

Meyer Burger announced that it is selling its PixDro inkjet printing business to Germany-based Suss MicroTec SE. The agreed price is $5 million, and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020. Meyer Burger reveals that PixDro currently has annual sales of around $8 million. This transaction continues Meyer burger's strategic focus on its solar (PV) business.

PixDro develops and manufactures inkjet printing equipment for for the electronics and semiconductor industries. PixDro started out as a startup in Isarel, and was later integrated into the Netherlands-based OTB-Group, which was later renamed Roth & Rau AG, which was then acquired by Meyer Burger. The company continues its journey and will now be part of Suss MicroTec.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported two significant orders for its OLED microdisplays - both from the defense sector.

The first order is a follow-on order for $4.3 million in connection with the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle Binocular (ENVG-B) program - which is expected to result in more orders as this is a multi-year program. The second order if from a major defense contractor (eMagin did not detail further) - and worth $5.6 million.

The government of the Guangzhou province in China announced that it aims to help its local display industry and have allocated large funds - up to 2 billion RMB (around $285 million USD) in subsidies per company. The goal is to help companies invest in production of emerging display technologies - including OLEDs, Micro-LEDs, QD-LEDs, 3D displays, e-paper displays, graphene enhanced display technologies and more.

The subsidies will be given to companies that start trial production, and when mass production begins.

In August 2017, Japan Display announced a last-resort strategic focus on OLED displays as the Japanese display maker failed to shift to OLED displays in time. JDI found it extremely difficult to secure the needed funds, but it finally raised $430 million from Oasis Management group and one of its customers (likely to be Apple).

It is now reported that Ichigo Asset Management will invest up to $830 million in Japan Display.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) awarded a $1 million project that aims to replace ITO with a metal-based micro-grid with an aim to improve the performance of OLED lighting panels.

This research project is led by Professor Paul Leu from the University of Pittsburgh and Texas-based Electroninks which provides the silver-based inks. Electroninks’ metal inks can cure at low temperatures, be printed into patterns, and has conductivity comparable to bulk metal. Using a new metal patterning technique that prints the metal grid directly on glass or plastic, it is possible to create micro-grids that can outperform ITO at a lower manufacturing cost.

In September 2019, CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) filed for bankruptcy - as the company could not repay its debt.

CPT was established in 1971 in Taiwan and was a CRT and LCD display maker. In 2012 CPT started to develop AMOLED technologies and the company established a small-size experimental line. Later on CPT actually started to produce AMOLEDs in low volume, and also developed flexible OLED technologies.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q3 2019. Revenues were $7.9 million (up from $6.9 million a year ago) and operating loss was $0.4 million (down from $1.3 million in Q3 2018).

eMagin says that these financial results present a significant improvement, with the second highest quarter revenues in the Company's history. The company demonstrated significant improvement in yield and throughput as production volumes increased over 50% from the second quarter.

Photonics-based solutions provider Coherent reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - revenues of $335.5 million and a non-GAAP gross profit of $122 million.

Regarding the OLED market, Coherent says that it finally started to receive some new orders for OLED equipment (ELA), following a "stretch" where there were no new system orders. Coherent says that it looks forward to the OLED ramp - with 2020 as a "bit of a recovery over 2019" - but the real strength coming in 2021 and 2022.

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q3 2019 - with sales of 62 trillion Won ($53 billion USD) and an operating profit of 7.78 trillion Won ($6.6 billion USD). Samsung reported lower memory earnings - but stronger smartphone and OLED panel sales.

Samsung Display saw increased profit from smartphone displays as demand for flexible OLED panels increased. SDC also reported improved OLED utilization rates.