AMOLED smartphone panel shipments to China are expected to keep increasing, but Samsung Display's dominance in the market will start seeing challenges from local competitors in 2018 when they ramp up production for AMOLED panels, according to Digitimes Research.
China's AMOLED smartphone panel shipments will increase to 3.53 million units in 2018, compared to 2.43 million units in 2016, figures from Digitimes Research's latest Special Report, China AMOLED panel capacity expansion forecast, 2016-2020, show.
When it started promoting its AMOLED panels to China-based customers in 2015, the South Korea-based vendor was almost the only maker capable of supplying meaningful volumes to the market.
But Samsung Display's limited production capacity means that when Samsung Electronics began to promote handsets with AMOLED displays in other emerging markets in first-half 2016, the panel supplier was forced to reduce its AMOLED supply to China. In the second half of 2016, major China-based smartphone vendors began shifting AMOLED panel orders for their flagship models to Japan-based JDI.
Samsung Display is now expected to resume strong promotion of its AMOLED panels in China in 2017, which is likely to curb the shipment growth of China-based AMOLED panel makers. But China-based AMOLED panel makers are not sitting idly.
Seven China-based panel makers have been expanding existing or setting up new AMOLED production capacities, with the total annual capacity estimated to increase from 272,000 square meters in 2016 to 1.584 million square meters in 2018, 4.464 million square meters in 2019, and 7.864 million square meters in 2020, representing an overall CAGR of 131.9% from 2016-2020.
This article is an excerpt from a Digitimes Research Special Report (China AMOLED panel capacity expansion forecast, 2016-2020). Visit our latest Special reports.