SK Materials advances OLED market

SK Materials headquarters in Yeongju in North Gyeongsang Province. / Courtesy of SK Materials

By Kim Hyun-bin

SK Materials has established a joint venture with Japan's JNC to enter the organic light emitting diodes (OLED) materials market as part of a move to evolve into a top-tier materials company.

The semiconductor and display materials company affiliated with SK Group said the joint enterprise with the Japanese chemicals company will be named SK JNC.

"The establishment of a joint company with JNC will enable us to swiftly and successfully enter the OLED materials sector where global demand is surging," an SK Materials executive said Wednesday. "We will be able to localize OLED materials and contribute to the development of the industry."

SK will have a 51 percent stake in the company ― to JNC's 49 percent ― and the headquarters will be located in Korea. Its initial paid in capital is set to be around 48 billion won.

The move could create synergy as SK has a vast production and sales network, while JNC has OLED-related original patents and technologies.

An OLED screen is made by placing a series of organic thin films between two conductors. Since OLEDs are emissive, the technology doesn't require backlighting, making the resultant displays thinner and more efficient than liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which require a white backlight.

OLED displays also provide better picture quality and enhanced power consumption when compared to conventional LCDs and the technology allows for flexibility, making it perfect for use in automobiles, wearable devices and a diverse range of next-generation displays.

There has been a sharp rise in demand for OLED displays, raising the need for OLED materials. According to market research company IHS Markit, the global OLED materials market is worth around $1.97 billion this year but is expected to sharply rise to $4.93 billion by 2025.

Utilizing the joint company, SK will be able to manufacture key OLED materials including dopant, as the joint venture will handle the production of relevant OLED materials, a plus factor in terms of boosting the company's competitiveness and lessening the technological gap among the country's major OLED powerhouses.

Dopant is a key OLED material related to emitting color, and the production of blue dopant is considered to require the most complex technology compared to red and green dopant, for which JNC has an original patent that is recognized as covering superior technology.

JNC was established in 1906 as a comprehensive chemicals company developing LCDs as well as synthetic resins and synthetic textiles.

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