TCL announced that its CSoT Subsidiary (China Star, also known as Shenzhen Huaxing Photoelectric Technology) plans to establish an LCD+OLED TV fab in Shenzhen, China. The new fab will have a monthly capacity of 90,000 substrate - and will produce 65- and 75-inch OLED TVs in addition to 65-, 75- and 75-inch 8K LCDs, all on Oxide-TFT backplanes. The line will begin operation in 2021.
The fab will apparently have two different production lines. The LCD line will be a 11-Gen line (3370x2940 mm) while the OLED Line will use smaller 8.5-Gen substrates (although this is not clear, CSoT may aim to use the 11-Gen substrates for OLED deposition too, perhaps cutting these large substrates before the OLED processing. Total investment in this new fab will be 42.6 billion Yuan (or about $6.7 billion USD).
CSoT has apparently signed agreement with the local government in Guandong province that will help fund the project. CSoT is owned by TCL, the Century Science & Technology Investment fund and Samsung Display (which holds around 5%). The company is producing small and large LCD panels and is building its first AMOLED fab in Wuhan - the 6-Gen flexible AMOLED T4 fab that is expected to begin production in Q2 2019, with full mass production achieved by 2020. The T4 capacity will be 45,000 substrates per month, and it will be used to make small and medium-sized flexible and foldable OLEDs.
TCL/CSoT has been planning to start OLED TV production for a long time. Towards the end of 2013 it was reported that TCL and CSOT will invest 24.4 billion yuan (just over $4 billion) to build a new 8.5-Gen LCD+OLED TV fab in Shenzhen. In 2016 TCL revised this plan - which said the line will use 11-Gen substrates and will be built by 2019. It's great to see TCL still committed to OLED TV production, but time will tell whether this time it will actually go ahead with its plans.
TCL is developing ink-jet printing technologies for OLED TV production, and has recently announced it has developed a 31" 4K printed OLED panel. It is not clear whether it aims to use a printing or an evaporation process in its upcoming fab.
