SEOUL—LG Display Co. on Thursday said it would build a new plant
in South Korea to produce flexible displays, citing the need to
prepare for an expected rise in demand from smartphone makers.
LG Display, a key screen supplier to Apple Inc. and LG
Electronics Inc., said in a regulatory filing it will invest 1.05
trillion Korean won ($907 million) in the new facility over a
two-year period starting in the third quarter.
LG's aggressive investment in flexible displays for mobile
devices signals a potential broad shift in smartphone screen
designs away from familiar rectangular flat screens. LG Display and
Samsung Electronics Co.'s display unit, Samsung Display Co., are
the world's top two display makers and the only companies that are
capable of commercially producing such displays, albeit in small
volumes thus far.
Flexible displays have been seen as the next generation of
screens for various consumer products ranging from smartphones and
smartwatches to TVs, but producing such displays requires highly
sophisticated and complex manufacturing techniques. That has kept
companies from producing the displays in large volumes.
A flexible display is used in Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy
S6 Edge smartphone, which comes with a screen that curves around
the edges. But Samsung's display unit has struggled to meet demand
for the curved screens in the early stages due to manufacturing
difficulties, dealing a blow to Samsung's profits.
LG Display said the new facility should be able to produce
flexible displays that are "foldable," as well as displays that
could be applied in automobiles. It didn't name any specific
clients.
Write to Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com
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