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Tianma Gets Funding for a 2nd Gen 6 Flexible OLED Fab
August 19, 2019
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Tianma signed a 2nd “Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement” with the government of Xiamenin Southeastern China for a Gen 6 flexible OLED fab that is expected to cost 27b yuan, or $6.8b US$.  This fab, which will be a Gen 6 flexible OLED fab, will cost Tianma $577m at the onset, with the Xiamen government ponying up $3.3b US (85%), with the remainder ($3b) to be financed through bank loans by the combined entities.  The project is expected to take 30 months to complete (construction), and another 6 months from the fab is topped, for equipment delivery and tuning, which puts construction ending in March 2022 (assuming approvals and signing by October of this year), and actual production beginning in 4Q 2022 for phase 1, assumed to be 30,000 sheets/month of the 45,000 expected when fully built out.
 
The new fab will more than double the current capacity by the end of 2024 and will put China’s OLED capacity on a par with South Korea.  There will be times when capacity gets tight, but the small panel flexible OLED segment will take on the general characteristics of the more mature parts of the display industry and will be waging a constant battle against competition and price erosion.  This is a natural evolution for small panel flexible OLED production, but one that makes justifying a $6b fab quite a bit more difficult.