Samsung Display’s flexible OLED shipment to China will triple this year compared to last year, UBI Research said on Tuesday.
The South Korean display panel maker will ship 47 million units of flexible OLED panel to China this year __ in 2019 it shipped 15.5 million units.
Thanks to this high demand from Chinese customers, as well as those from Apple, Samsung Display is expected to ship a total of 155.5 million units of flexible OLED panel in this year, a rise of 34% from 2019, UBI Research said.
This contrasts with its shipment decline from 2017 to 2019. Samsung Display shipped 152 million units in 2017, but this dropped to 129 million units in 2018 and 116 million units in 2019.
Apple’s new iPhone 12 series launching later this year is also helping this growth. Samsung Display is a supplier for three out of four models for the series __ the company will ship 70 million units of flexible OLED panels for Apple while LG will ship 18 million units, the South Korean research firm said.
Samsung’s shipment to the Cupertino is a significant rise from the 48 million units it shipped last year.
Meanwhile, Samsung Display’s supply to Samsung Electronics will decline 27% from a year ago to 38.5 million flexible OLED panels this year, UBI Research said. This is a decline from the 52.5 million units it supplied last year.
UBI Research said it estimates that Samsung Electronics shipped 25 million units in its Galaxy S20 series, a 30% decrease from the Galaxy S10 series. The research firm said it expects the Galaxy Note 20 series to ship 10 million units, 17% less than its predecessor the Galaxy Note 10.
The total shipment for flexible OLED panels this year __ which includes LG Display, BOE and other vendors to Samsung's __ will be 215 million units, the research firm said. This will grow to 257.7 million units in 2021 and 320.4 million uni its 2022 and 353.3 million units in 2023. In 2023, flexible OLED panel shipment will overtake those of rigid OLED panels for the first time, it said. This growth will mostly led by Apple’s wide adoption of flexible OLED panels for its iPhone line-ups.
Growth in both flexible and rigid OLED panels will slow down after 2023, UBI Research said. Foldable OLED panels, meanwhile, will account for 9.2% of total small- to mid-sized OLED panel shipment in 2025.
Samsung Display’s rigid OLED panels to China, meanwhile, will drop to 110 million units from its 135.1 million units moved last year. It supply to Samsung Electronics will also fall to 112 million units in 2020 from 2019’s 140 million units.