The Device End And Material End Upstream Of OLED Panel Still Rely Heavily On Imports

China touch screen network news, folding screen mobile phone hot domestic core equipment materials are still stuck neck. Under the general trend of weak growth of smartphones, many mobile phone manufacturers have focused on folding screens with large changes in the appearance of mobile phones. On February 24, Barcelona local time, HUAWEI launched HUAWEI Mate X, the long-awaited 5G folding screen phone in the industry. A few days before Huawei released its new product, Samsung also released a folding screen Galaxy Fold in the United States, taking the lead in grabbing the limelight of folding screen phones.
When it comes to folding screen phones, you have to mention OLED panels. Previously, OLED panels were mainly monopolized by South Korea's Samsung and LG. In recent years, domestic manufacturers represented by BOE, Tianma and Hehui optoelectronics have begun to exert their efforts, and the yield of domestic panel enterprises has continued to increase, nowadays, the flexible OLED panels of manufacturers such as BOE and vercino have successfully entered many domestic mobile phone supply chains and have realized large-scale mass production and shipment.
Although OLED domestic panel enterprises have entered the release stage, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" learned that domestic enterprises have not yet made effective breakthroughs in the upstream equipment and materials, the construction of production lines and product production in the middle and lower reaches of China still have high import dependence.
International leader Master OLED key material market
The whole OLED industry is divided into three parts: upper and lower reaches, upper reaches are equipment manufacturing, material manufacturing and parts assembly, Middle reaches are OLED panel manufacturing, module assembly, and lower reaches are Display terminals and other application fields. In the upstream material manufacturing field, it is also divided into ITO glass film, OLED organic material, polarizer and packaging material.
Among them, OLED organic materials and equipment are the most important cost components of OLED. Qun Zhi Consulting (Sigmaintell) senior analyst Wu Shuyuan told "Daily Economic News" reporter, OLED core material equipment is mainly in foreign companies, in a monopoly position. In other words, there are still gaps in the precision of equipment, material life and so on in China.
Taking OLED organic materials as an example, within the OLED material processing chain, the industry barriers of each production link are constantly improving, and the bulk raw materials that are fully competitive in the market are gradually synthesized into fine products, extended to intermediates, coarse monomers and monomers, and finally handed over to the panel factory for steaming and printing of various products.
However, the reporter noticed that the domestic OLED luminous material manufacturers represented by Puyang Huicheng and Wanrun shares are mainly concentrated in the intermediate and coarse single stage.
Guojin Securities research pointed out that at present, there are obvious enterprise and product qualification restrictions in the international procurement of OLED materials, international Chemical giants Samsung, LG Chemical, South Korea Deshan, Dow Chemical and other enterprises have basically monopolized OLED mature single market, while domestic enterprises are limited by material patents, at present, it is difficult to intervene in the high-end material industry close to the panel enterprise procurement.
In addition to the organic material end, the reporter learned that some of the upstream equipment of OLED also depends on imports. Taking steaming as an example, steaming is the key to OLED manufacturing process, which determines the resolution and yield of OLED panel pixels, so vacuum steaming machine is like the heart of OLED panel process.
However, at present, the world's medium and high-grade steam plating machines are monopolized by Japanese Canon Tokki, Korean Sunic System, YAS, SFA and other enterprises, and the production capacity is seriously limited. Among them, Canon Tokki is currently the world's largest OLED equipment supplier, it has almost monopolized the vacuum steamer required for high-end OLED manufacturing.
Guosheng Securities research pointed out that before 2017, Samsung exclusively bought Canon Tokki's annual production capacity (3 ~ 4 sets ). It was not until Canon Tokki expanded to 9 units in 2017 that LGD and BoE could win two respectively. BOE Chengdu G6 imported the first Canon Tokki evaporation equipment in first quarter of 2017.
However, other panel manufacturers have adopted other production processes. On June 2018, soft Yuke Technology announced that the world's first six-generation flexible display production line with an investment of about 11 billion yuan was successfully lit up and put into production in Shenzhen. Fan Junchao, vice president of technology, said in an interview with "Daily Economic News" that the production line of Ruoyu did not use Canon Tokki's steamer. As for the specific process adopted, Fan Junchao said it was inconvenient to disclose.
Domestic substitution acceleration
Ha Jiqing, senior analyst at AVCRevo, told reporters that at present, the domestic investment in OLED panel production lines has just risen, the relevant industrial base is weak, and OLED equipment is developing late, OLED material verification time is long, OLED key equipment and materials are still mostly dependent on imports, only some non-key core equipment such as handling equipment, testing equipment and cutting equipment have been localization.
Ha Jiqing said that the development of general industrial facilities is closely related to the development status of the industry itself. The stronger the OLED panel enterprises are, the more sound the OLED industrial facilities are. With the continuous strengthening of domestic OLED panel enterprises, it will drive the localization of OLED core facilities and build a domestic supply chain system. At present, some domestic enterprises have begun to develop OLED core supporting facilities, some of which have entered the production line.
In 2019, two or three new OLED production lines in China will be mass-produced, plus some of the original OLED mass production lines, which will drive the improvement of domestic OLED shipments. In the next two or three years, with the further release of these production lines, the demand for OLED materials by Chinese panel manufacturers will increase significantly. Ha Jiqing explained that in recent years, 30 or 40 domestic enterprises such as agreya, Olid, Lu Milan, Yantai Xianghua, Xi'an Ruilian, Ding material technology and March technology have poured into the OLED material market, even some LCD material manufacturers have begun to get involved in the OLED material market, hoping to get a share. Moreover, OLED panel enterprises have the motivation to promote the localization of OLED materials in order to reduce costs and enhance market competitiveness.
Reporters learned that in recent years, materials manufacturers such as strong new materials and Wanrun shares have successively broken through the terminal patent materials with technical cooperation and independent research and development, and have begun to enter the certification and mass production supply stage of domestic production lines.
Wanrun shares responded at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange interactive exchange that the OLED finished materials of the company's independent intellectual property rights have been verified smoothly by downstream manufacturers. At present, it has entered the release verification stage, and there is still uncertainty about whether it can be supplied in batches.
Another listed company, strong new materials, has established Changzhou powerful laser Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as strong radium) in cooperation with laser light and electricity in Taiwan ). The semi-annual report of 2018 shows that the OLED sublimation materials have been mass-produced at this stage, and have entered the research and development line and production line of the main OLED panel factories in China.
At present, some domestic OLED material enterprises have achieved some breakthroughs, some materials have been imported into the mass production line, and the proportion of domestic OLED materials will be increased in the future. More than half of the materials needed to be imported at the beginning, but now 90% of the PMOLED materials are provided by domestic companies. Ha Jiqing said.