Samsung Display has sent a request to the US government for a license to allow it to sell panels to Huawei, TheElec has learned.
LG Display, meanwhile, was reviewing the matter, people familiar with the matter said.
Last month, the US Department of Commerce made it explicit that foreign-made goods that uses US technology were to be included in its ban against Huawei.
US-based Arm owns the core technology used to make display driver ICs on display panels.
Samsung Display and LG Display won’t be able to sell their OLED panels to Huawei starting on September 15, when the US sanctions come into effect.
BOE is the largest supplier of OLED panels to Huawei. Samsung Display supplies around 10% of its total OLED panel units to the Chinese smartphone and telecom giant.
LG Display also supplies OLED panels used in Huawei’s smartphones as well as OLED panels for TVs. The company supplies less volume to Huawei compared to Samsung and won’t be impacted as much from the ban.
According to Omdia, in the second quarter of 2020, Samsung Display controlled a market share of 72.7% in smartphone OLED panels, followed by BOE’s 11.9% and LG Display’s 4%.
