Korea’s JNTC said on Feb. 20 that mass production of cover glass has begun from BNJ – its joint venture with China’s largest display maker BOE.
The products will be purchased by BOE, which is projected to supply curved OLED panels to Huawei’s premium smartphone, the P40 Pro, scheduled to be released in March, 2020.
“The products from BNJ will be supplied fully to BOE, and won’t be going into any other firm,” said Kim Sung-han, CEO of JNTC at a press conference on this day.
In June 2019, JNTC established BNJ with BOE. BNJ is currently capable of producing up to 3 million curved 3D cover glass a month. BOE affiliate BOEVT (Beijing BOE Vision-Electronic Technology) has signed on to invest 70% in BNJ, with the rest of the funds coming from JNTC. In September 2019, JNTC took a 24.08% stake by investing KRW 25.5 billion.
JNTC itself is capable of producing up to 6 million curved cover glass a month, including 1 million from home and 5 million from Vietnam, where JNTC plans to build a third plant.
JNTC is planning to get listed on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market on March 4, 2020 by floating 11 million shares to raise between KRW 93.5 billion – 115.5 billion. “We hope to become a firm representing Korea’s technological edge,” Kim said.
One of JNTC’s first notable projects was supplying the cover glass for Samsung Electronics’ ‘edge’ series, beginning with the Galaxy Note 4 Edge in 2014, the Galaxy S6 Edge and the Galaxy S7 Edge.
But since the Galaxy S7 Edge and the Note 7, Samsung has become self-reliant for the display cover glass. JNTC is currently supplying mostly to Chinese handset makers, such as Huawei and Vivo. It also supplies cover glass to Samsung Display, LG Display and BOE.
This year, Kim said that Samsung Display will account for about 60% of JNTC’s cover glass sales, while LG Display accounts for 30% and BOE 10%.
In 2019, JNTC’s accumulated sales stood at KRW 224.9 billion as of the third quarter, while operating profit hit 32.6 billion. The company’s cover glass sales reached KRW 148.8 billion at this time.
This year, JNCT plans to begin mass producing curved cover glass going into automobiles within the latter half of this year. “We are scheduled to supply to a European carmaker via a domestic display maker,” explained the CEO. .
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