Display panel maker BOE aims to bolster its position

The stand of BOE Technology Group Co Ltd at an industry expo in Beijing.[Wu Changqing / For China Daily]

BOE Technology Group Co Ltd, a leading supplier of semiconductor display products based in Beijing, will continue to strengthen its position in the industry amid a surge in demand for large-sized high-definition panels, a top executive said.

"There is a huge demand for large-sized high-definition panels and the prospect of LCD panels is still promising, even though the growth rate of traditional display industry is slowing down," said BOE Vice-President Zhang Yu.

The company also aims to develop products for the healthcare industry, he added.

Zhang's comments came just two months after BOE announced the launch of a Gen 10.5 TFT-LCD production line in Hefei, Anhui province. Billed as the world's highest generation line, the 40 billion yuan ($6.14 billion) plant will produce high-definition LCD screens of 65 inches and above.

In addition to traditional fields such as television and other electronic devices, new BOE products could be used in the automobile and healthcare industries, Zhang said.

"It is noteworthy that the demand for large-sized ultra high-definition panels, including 10K and 8K UHD large-sized display panels, is increasing, which will also be the future trend."

According to WitsView Technology Corp, a display market research firm, the shipments of Chinese display panels continue to increase.

The shipment from BOE alone reached 35.66 million units in 2015, a year-on-year increase of 148.5 percent, ranking the fourth place worldwide.

Statistics from CINNO Research, a Shanghai-based display industry consultancy, showed the worldwide smartphone panel shipments came up to 1.81 billion units in 2015, up 14.6 percent from the previous year, and BOE ranked No 1, taking up 17 percent of the market share of panels for smartphone.

South Korea and Japan as well as China's Taiwan have been the three key players in the display industry for a long time. With a monopoly over all core LCD technologies, these regions were the main and most influential production bases of LCD products.

"China's semiconductor display industry has taken a great leap forward in the past decade, changing display industry's global competitive landscape. China has transformed to the world's largest consumer market and manufacturing base of display terminals, with a huge market potential," Zhang said.

The company is also planning to enter into the healthcare industry.

Last year, it announced an investment of 3.2 billion yuan to build a digital hospital in Hefei, which is expected to come into operation in 2023, and to provide intelligent and remote medical care service via Internet, big data, cloud computing and sensor technology.

Zhang said the intelligent healthcare field will be a new profit growth point for the company, which is also a part of its diversified layout in the future, adding the company will increase investment in this field.

Li Yaqin, vice-president of Sigmaintell Consulting Co Ltd, another panel industry consultancy said: "The display panel is BOE's strength and the company is building an ecosystem revolving around the smart hardware."

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn