Rumor: LG has significantly reduced production of OLED panels for TVs

LG Display, a subsidiary of the LG group, has significantly reduced the production of full-HD and UHD-OLED panels, the Korean Etnews reports based on anonymous sources. The demand for full HD OLED screens would be too low and there would be too much downtime in the production of UHD displays.

According to Etnews, which relies on anonymous sources, LG Display has large stocks of full-HD OLED panels because the demand for such screens is lagging. The yields in the production of OLED panels with a UHD resolution are also said to be low, although it remains unclear why the failure rate is so high. It is known that the production of OLED dislays with very high resolutions is considerably more complex.

LG would initially have intended to manufacture more than 700,000 OLED panels for televisions this year, but the Korean electronics manufacturer has adjusted the expected production numbers to half a million OLED displays, according to the sources. In addition, LG Display will mainly focus on the manufacture of 55″ screens, because 65″ and 77″ OLED displays would still be too expensive. In addition to production problems and a low demand for full-HD-OLED panels, production is of OLED panels also temporarily shut down in January due to a nitrogen leak.

It is striking that the yields achieved in the production of full-HD OLED screens are now comparable to those of ‘classic’ LCD screens. Competitor Samsung would still struggle with lower yields in OLED production as a result of the complicated production process.