April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Display, the display-making unit of Samsung Electronics, has seen a surge in Chinese sales this year on the soaring demand for organic light-emitting diode panels among smartphone makers there.

According to the company’s quarterly report, its accumulative Chinese sales soared to 7.34 trillion won (US$6.12 billion) as of the third quarter this year, which compared to a 32.59 percent plunge in its domestic sales at 1.45 trillion won. 

Despite reduced production of liquid-crystal displays for TVs and other tech devices, more lucrative OLED sales to Chinese handset makers have driven up its sales overall.

In the first quarter, its key clients included Samsung Electronics, Apple and Sony. In the third quarter, Oppo, the fast-growing Chinese vendor, replaced Sony in the top client list. Even though the company didn’t offer breakdown figures for each client, Samsung Electronics is estimated to make up more than 50 percent of its sales.

Samsung Display, which produces almost 97 percent of OLED panels for smartphones, plan to further beef up production to meet the growing demand in coming months.

With the planned expansion of its production plants, the company’s production capacity of 5-inch OLED panels that are most widely used in smartphones is expected to surge from the current 5.3 million units per month to more than 20 million units in the fourth quarter next year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)