OLED Lighting Gets a Boost

OLED Lighting Gets a Boost
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Yeolight (pvt), a Chinese OLED display producer that specializes in OLED lighting has begun construction of a new Gen 4.5 OLED lighting production fab in Huaibei City, Anhui Province after receiving environmental impact approval.  The fab, which broke ground on May 20, is expected to cost a bit over $300m US.  Yeolight was spun off from Chinese OLED producer Visionozx (002387.CH) in 2015.  Visionox also spun off its PMOLED (passive matrix) business, now called Qingyue (pvt) in March of last year, along with its 2 Gen 2 8,000 sheet/month PMOLED fabs.  We have yet to see a completion date for the Yeolight fab, although we expect between 14 and 20 months to complete and begin mass production.  The new fab, when completed, is expected to be able to produce 7m OLED panels, although the size was not specified.
While OLED lighting is the most adaptive of all lighting products, the cost to produce such products remains high and has not proven to be a mass marketable product.  A number of companies are involved but LG Display closed its OLED lighting fab in 2019, while a number of other manufacturing companies, both in and outside of the display space, have tried to find ways to commercialize the production process.  OLEDWorks (pvt), Kaneka (4118.JP), Konica Minolta (4902.JP), and Lumiotec (7717.JP) ae among those producing various quantities of OLED lighting panels.  Should Yeolight build out this fab to capacity, it will be a significant contributor to OLED lighting unit volume. As long as a strong customer base can be found.
 

Yeolight Gen 4.5 Construction Site - Source: weixin.qq.com