Demand surges, OLED industry is about to explode

After technological development in recent years, OLED screens have finally become the new focus of the industry (OLED display technology is different from traditional LCD display methods. It does not require a backlight and uses very thin organic material coatings and glass substrates. When current passes through, these organic materials will automatically emit light). It is reported that Apple will use OLED screens on the iPhone updated in 2017, and plans to use this screen on iPads and MacBooks. Samsung may have obtained the exclusive right to supply OLED screens for the 2017 iPhone and intends to provide large quantities of OLED screens to the PC market.

In addition, during this year’s May Day holiday, many OLED TV brands such as LG, Skyworth, Changhong, and Konka competed for beauty, and some products were even out of stock.

In this regard, analysts said that OLED is the next generation of mainstream display technology. OLED has many advantages, including high brightness, high contrast, high color gamut and viewing angle, low energy consumption, thinner and flexible features, etc. As OLED technology continues to mature, its excellent yield rate and production capacity increase, its application scenarios will be greatly expanded, including smartphones, smart hardware, VR, lighting and other fields will be the focus of application. The market space for OLED display and lighting is vast, the entire industry chain is expected to develop rapidly, and related listed companies will also usher in new opportunities for growth.

From the perspective of market development space, on the one hand, LCD itself has a market space of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the stock market space for OLED to replace LCD is large enough; on the other hand, virtual reality (VR), wearable devices, etc. provide continued incremental space for OLED.

In terms of investment strategy, CITIC Construction Investment said that at present, the upstream organic light-emitting materials for OLED are mainly in the hands of foreign manufacturers such as Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Germany, and there is currently no substitute product in China. Domestic companies mainly provide intermediates and crude monomers of OLED organic materials for international OLED material manufacturers. With the explosion in demand for OLED panels, the sales volume of domestic intermediates and crude monomers is expected to grow significantly. The current leading companies are expected to continue to grow and develop following the rise of the entire industry chain.

The OLED industry chain can be roughly divided into four main links: basic materials, production equipment, driver chips, panels and modules. Due to the absolute leadership of Samsung and LGD in OLED, the related industrial chain is mainly distributed in South Korea, and Chinese companies are expected to make breakthroughs in the driver chip sector.