Important node: March color TV business started OLED war

In March of this year, it will be an important node for the Chinese OLED market.

According to the Beijing Business Daily reporter, Hisense’s new OLED TV products will be launched in early March this year. At this point, in addition to a few manufacturers, China's mainstream TV manufacturers have fixed the next generation of products on OLED technology. According to the IHS report, in 2016, China's OLED TV sales reached 72,800 units, and in 2018, in the first three quarters alone, sales reached 114,800 units. With the arrival of Hisense, this number will usher in a higher rate of growth in 2019.

The data shows that OLEDs are seen as the next generation of display technology that will replace liquid crystals. Different from the principle of imaging the light emitted by the liquid crystal material through the filtering backlight, the OLED adopts a self-luminous organic material, does not require a backlight, and has a simple structure, and brings more design possibilities such as ultra-thin, bendable, and transparent display. Since each pixel can be independently controlled to open and close, the OLED can also achieve infinite contrast and perfect black effect, and the color is more vivid and full. Globally, mainstream manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic and other Japanese manufacturers, LG Electronics and other Korean manufacturers, Philips and other European manufacturers have chosen OLED as the future power point.

For the TV giants such as Skyworth and Hisense, they all look to OLED. Hongshi Bin, an observer of the home appliance industry, said that its influence in the high-end market and better profit performance are very important factors.

The data shows that the profit margin of LCD TV manufacturers has been at a low level in recent years due to sluggish demand. In particular, many smaller TV manufacturers are even more difficult. According to AVC data, in 2017, the average profit margin of major enterprises in China's color TV industry was only 1.3%.

In the trend that the overall market demand has not improved significantly, the high-end market has become an important position for profit. According to a report released by IHS in 2018, OLED TVs are becoming a major source of revenue for TV manufacturers. The report pointed out that Sony's overall TV revenue in 2017 increased by 21% compared with 2016, of which OLED TV contribution rate reached 8%; LG Electronics' overall TV revenue in 2017 increased by 9% compared with 2016, of which OLED TV contribution rate was as high as 52%.

In the Chinese market, Skyworth, which took the lead in the market, has already tasted the sweetness. According to AVC Ovi Cloud monitoring data, in 2017, Skyworth OLED TV sales accounted for 45% of the Chinese market; Skyworth's 2016/17 financial year report also clearly pointed out that OLED organic TV sales are Skyworth's high-end product line.

China is the world's largest TV market, and its acceptance of advanced technology is high, which will play a major role in the expansion of the OLED TV market. According to IHS forecast, China's OLED TV will continue to maintain rapid growth in 2019, an increase of 88.7% compared with 2018.

On January 29, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 10 ministries and commissions jointly issued the “Implementation Plan for Further Optimizing Supply to Promote Steady Growth in Consumption and Promote the Formation of a Strong Domestic Market (2019)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Plan”). To promote the consumption of home appliances, including support for green, smart home appliances sales; promote the upgrading of home appliances. The industry expects that a new round of home appliance sales season will come, change the machine into a trend, OLED and other high-end TV will be more consumers to choose. According to data from Avi Cloud (AVC), the retail volume of China's color TV market in 2018 was 47.74 million units, a slight increase of 0.5% year-on-year; the retail sales volume was 149 billion yuan, down 8.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Aowei Cloud expects In 2019, the market will resume growth. The retail volume is expected to reach 48.51 million units, up 1.6% year-on-year. Industry analysts believe that with the OLED TV further gaining market favor, the policy is expected to promote OLED TV to win more shares in the high-end market in 2019.

LG Display, the core supplier of OLED TV panels, told the Beijing Business Daily that LG Display will participate in the AWE 2019 exhibition in Shanghai next year for the first time. LG Display is currently the only panel company in the world with large-scale production of large-size OLED TV panel technology. In 2018, LG Display 8.5 generation OLED panel production line will be launched in Guangzhou. In the third quarter of 2019, the production line will be put into production. At that time, Skyworth, Hisense and other enterprises will be able to obtain more stable panel supply and technical support, which will undoubtedly be China OLED TV. The market brings new impetus.