BenQ Materials has begun shipments for polarizers for smartphone-use flexible OLED panels and is looking have them adopted by OLED TV panels, according to company chairman and CEO Chen Chien-chi.
Due to LCD panel makers' high inventory levels and logistics issues, global demand for LCD panels in the second half of 2021 is expected to drop from the first half, said BenQ president Jay Liu. As a result, tight supply of polarizers seen in the first half of the year is expected to ease in the second half, Liu noted.
In view of increasing average size of LCD TVs, if global sales for LCD TVs in 2022 remains unchanged from 2021, the total display area of TV panels will increase and so will that of TV panel-use polarizers in 2022, Liu indicated.
BenQ aims to decrease the revenue proportion for polarizers from over 80% currently to below 60% in 2023, Chen said.
For medical consumable products for personal use including contact lenses, China is the largest market with sales in 2021 expected to grow 30-50% on year, Chen noted. For hospital-use medical devices and consumable products, BenQ has scored points in marketing in China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, Chen indicated.
BenQ will expand the annual production capacity for 3-layer separator film at its factory in central China from 40 million square meters at present to 100 million square meters in third-quarter 2022, Chen said. In addition, BenQ will set up a factory of 3-layer separator film with planned annual production capacity of 100 million square meters in Yulin Technology-based Industrial Park, central Taiwan, with production to begin at the end of 2022 or early 2023. For the purpose, BenQ will invest NT$500-1,000 million (US$17.9-35.7 million) in total over the next three years, Chen indicated.
BenQ Materials chairman and CEO Chen Chien-chi
Photo: Michael Lee, Digitimes, September 2021
