LG Display to build new plant for flexible display production

PanARMENIAN.Net - LG Display Co. on Thursday, July 23, said it would build a new plant in South Korea to produce flexible displays, citing the need to prepare for an expected rise in demand from smartphone makers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

LG Display, a key screen supplier to Apple Inc. and LG Electronics Inc., said in a regulatory filing it will invest 1.05 trillion Korean won ($907 million) in the new facility over a two-year period starting in the third quarter, according to the Journal.

LG’s aggressive investment in flexible displays for mobile devices signals a potential broad shift in smartphone screen designs away from familiar rectangular flat screens. LG Display and Samsung Electronics Co.’s display unit, Samsung Display Co., are the world’s top two display makers and the only companies that are capable of commercially producing such displays, albeit in small volumes thus far.

Flexible displays have been seen as the next generation of screens for various consumer products ranging from smartphones and smartwatches to TVs, but producing such displays requires highly sophisticated and complex manufacturing techniques. That has kept companies from producing the displays in large volumes.

A flexible display is used in Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone, which comes with a screen that curves around the edges. But Samsung’s display unit has struggled to meet demand for the curved screens in the early stages due to manufacturing difficulties, dealing a blow to Samsung’s profits.

LG Display said the new facility should be able to produce flexible displays that are “foldable,” as well as displays that could be applied in automobiles. It didn’t name any specific clients.