Global Panel Industry Center Transferred to Mainland China

Domestic panel industry capacity continues to accelerate expansion. Recently, TCL's China Star Optoelectronics Phase II project was mass-produced 50 days in advance; another domestic panel giant, BOE, announced that it will build 70 new high-generation panel lines. This will prompt the transfer of global panel industry centers to the mainland. The industry expects that China's mainland panel shipments will exceed Taiwan this year, and in 2017 it will surpass South Korea’s number one globally.

Domestic panel continues to expand

At the moment when the TV machine does not make money, the lucrative upstream core components have obviously attracted more attention from the TCL Group. Recently, the second-phase project of Huaxing Optoelectronics, with a total investment of RMB 24.4 billion, has announced 50-day volume production. As of 2014, China Star Optoelectronics has become the world's fifth largest manufacturer of LCD TV panels.

The data shows that in 2014, China Star Optoelectronics achieved a sales revenue of 18 billion yuan, net profit of 2.43 billion yuan, and 32-inch shipments maintained the industry first. The overall net profit in the TCL Group accounts for more than 50%.

Another domestic company in the main panel, BOE, is even more ferocious. Recently, BOE announced that it will build a panel line of 10.5 generations and 8.5 generations respectively in Hefei, Anhui and Fuzhou, Fujian, with a total investment of astonishing RMB 70 billion. After completion, it will enable BOE's panel production line to reach 10.

According to the current production speed, panel shipments in Mainland China (including the mainland's Korean factories) will exceed China's Taiwan region this year and will surpass South Korea, the world’s largest panel source, after two years.

From the low end to the high end

Despite the crazy investment in recent years, the production capacity of domestic panels has been no less favourable than foreign giants, but it is mainly concentrated in small and medium-sized, medium and low-end product areas. After solving the capacity issue, the domestic panel industry obviously needs to think more about how to extend to the high end.

Unlike the first-phase project, which mainly focuses on 32-inch products, 80% of Huaxing Solar's second-stage production capacity will be used on high-end and large-size products, and the production of OLED screens is also planned. Two new production lines of BOE will also focus on large-size, ultra-high resolution products.

According to IHS DisplaySearch, an industry consulting agency, the demand for the global flat panel display market has steadily increased over the next five years. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate of medium-sized ultra-high-definition panels will reach 26.4% from 2015 to 2019. Zhang Yu, vice president of BOE, told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter: “Either the end consumer or the commercial market is moving in the direction of large size, which is a new market opportunity for the panel industry.”