Guangzhou becomes home to China's first large OLED panel plant

The city of Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province is now one step closer to its goal of becoming the world's display capital, after the establishment of a large organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel production line in Huangpu district on July 11.

The 8.5-generation OLED panel plant will be built by the world's leading display panel manufacturer, LG Display, along with Guangzhou GET Technologies Development Company. Costing 46 billion yuan ($6.9 billion), it is the first of its kind in China and will begin operating during the second half of 2019.

An OLED display works without a backlight because it emits visible light. Thus, it can display deep levels of black and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid crystal display (LCD). In low ambient light conditions such as a dark room, an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD.

Due to its thinner and lighter materials, OLEDs can be designed in a variety of ways. In the field of innovative and competitive TV panels, OLEDs offer more possibilities for modern TVs and are favored by TV manufacturers.

The production line will mainly produce 55 to 77-inch ultra-high-definition TV OLED panels. Its regular production capacity will be 60,000 pieces of glass substrate per month, while its maximum production capacity will reach 90,000.

The establishment of the panel plant will help popularize OLED TVs. According to forecasts by technology analysis company IHS Technology, China's OLED TVs will continue expanding rapidly in 2019, with a predicted increase of 115.5 percent over 2018.

Huangpu district has been crucial in boosting Guangzhou's IAB (next generation of information technology, artificial intelligence and biological medicine) industries, with the output value of the three fields accounting for over half of Guangzhou's total output. The display panel industry in Huangpu district is the largest in Guangzhou and its industrial output value is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2020.