Financial - Page 29

DSCC says that Q3 2018 was a record quarter for display equipment spending, as sales reached $7.8 billion billion in the quarter - up 13% from Q3 2017. In the quarter five new 6-Gen OLED lines were installed in addition to a 10.5-Gen LCD fab.The top 5 equipment vendors, according to DSCC, were Canon (13.1%), Applied materials (9.6%), Tokyo Electron, Nikon and SFA Engineering.

Despite the record quarter, total display spending will fall 9% in 2018 (to $21.6 billion). OLED equipment spending is expected to drop 44% in 2019 to $7 billion as mobile OLED spending slows. DSCC says that OLED spending will rebound in 2020, and will increase by 50% to reach $10.5 billion. In 2021, DSCC sees OLED spending declining again, and then rebound in 2022.

Samsung Display is developing hybrid QD-OLED TV technology, and according to estimates, the company aims to begin trial production in 2019. It seems that Samsung is managing to overcome the technical challenges and the company is preparing to start production of such QD-OLED TVs in 2019.

Last month Digitimes updated about Samsung's plans to start installing equipment by the end of 2018 and begin trial production in H2 2019. Digitimes now posted another article, revealing more details on Samsung's plans.

China-based display maker CSOT held a ceremony yesterday as it started construction on its upcoming T7 large-area display production fab. The T7 fab, which has a total cost of around 42.7 billion Yuan ($6.15 billion USD), will produce both LCD and OLED displays.

Total capacity in the T7 line will be 105,000 monthly substrates (according to our information, the OLED capacity will be 20,000 monthly substrates). The T7 OLED line will use IGZO backplanes and inkjet printing deposition. CSOT's plan is to start production by the end of 2020 - with real mass production starting in 2021.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin reported its financial results for Q3 2018. eMagin said it had another strong quarter supported by growth in its military with several new program wins and in its commercial business. Total revenues were $6.9 million (a 60% increase from Q3 2017), and operating loss was $1.3 million (down from $3 million in Q3 2018). Including a non-cash change in value of warrants, the company had a small net profit in the quarter.

Regarding its consumer business, eMagin updates that it has achieved design approval from one of its Tier-1 consumer electronics partners. eMagin's foundry partner will produce wafer for display prototypes for this customer. eMagin says that its direct-emission OLED microdisplays meets the wide field of view, no screen door effect and high brightness that the partner requires.

MagnaChip announced its Q3 2018 financial results -with revenues of $206 million, and an operating income of $18.3 million. MagnaChip's OLED display drive revenues reached $58.3 (up 232.2% from Q3 2017) and are on track to set a revenue record in 2018 (MagnaChip best ever OLED year was in 2016 with $161 million in revenues).

During the quarter, six smartphones with MagnaChip's OLED drivers were launched (as expected) and the company continued to win several new designs for smartphones in Asia.

Universal Display reported its financial results for Q3 2018. Revenues increased 26% from last year, to reach $77.6 million (material sales increased 9% to $51.2 million). Net income was $22.8 million (up from $13.5 million in Q3 2017).

UDC lowered its 2018 revenue guidance to $240-250 million. Even though the market has picked up in the quarter for its major customers (SDC and LGD), UDC's revenues and guidance disappointed investors.

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q3 2018, with a 5.5% increase in revenues (to KRW 65.46 trillion) and 20.9% increase in quarterly operating profits.

Samsung Display fared "unfavorable supply-demand conditions in the LCD market" - but total revenues improved from last year thanks for higher sales of flexible OLED panels. Earnings significantly grew from Q2 2018 due to increased utilization of flexible OLED panel capacity. Samsung expects OLED demand to remain strong in Q4 2018.

The following is a sponsored post by Shaanxi Kuntech Semiconductor Technology

The press conference for the landing and launching of Shaanxi Kuntech Flexible Semiconductor Service Manufacturing Base Project was grandly held in West Fengxi New City, West Xian Xin New District, Shaanxi province on the morning of October 16, with its theme being "Shinning Shaanxi and Shaping the Future World".

A number of Chinese government leaders, partners from home and abroad, as well as the media attended the event, where the duo direction foldable AMOLED display with internal and external folds developed by the R&D team was also displayed.

China-based OLED producer Visionox announced plans to establish its 2nd flexible OLED production line in Hefei. The new line will have a monthly capacity of 30,000 1500x1850 mm substrates (6-Gen), similar to the company's first line in Hebei.

The construction of the new line will take 25 months - so mass production will not begin before the end of 2020. Total investment in the new production line will be $6.3 billion, out of which $3.15 billion will be raised with debt and the rest by equity - by Visionox and the Hefei Municipal People's Government.

The South Korean government announced a seven-year project to establish an OLED R&D and manufacturing facility in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.

The Korean government will spend 528 billion Won (around $468 million USD), it's largest ever R&D project, to build the R&D center and manufacturing facility, which will include 61 manufacturing and production systems, including several OLED evaporation systems. The R&D facility will conduct over 66 planed projects, focusing on technologies such as flexible OLED encapsulation, cost-cutting methods, next-generation displays and more.