November 21, 2024

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[ET NEWS] Samsung Display will resume production at its A4 OLED plant as early as in October as it has recently secured a new Chinese client for its flexile OLED panels, according to industry sources on Aug. 13.

The plant, formerly L7-1 LCD production line, was supposed to start production early this year but the plans have been delayed for months due to shrinking demand.

Sources said Samsung has recently inked a supply deal with a new Chinese client for its on-screen touch display, called Y-OCTA that has thus far been supplied to Samsung Electronics only. The monthly production capacity of the A4 is 30,000 units of the sixth-generation OLED panels.

But it still remains to be seen whether the plant could resume production as planned because it takes months of test runs to restart operations at facilities that have been shut down.

Samsung Display suffered slowing orders during the off-season from late last year to early this year. In particular, the operational rate of the A3 plant that produces panels mostly for Apple’s iPhones once tumbled to 10 percent. But more recently both A2 and A3 plants are said to be operating at almost 80 percent of their full capacity thanks to Apple’s imminent new phone launches and the growing demand from Chinese smartphone makers.

By Bae Ok-jin (withok@etnews.com)
This story was co-produced by ET News and The Investor.