Merck confident about Samsung joining OLED TV race
By Kim Yoo-chul
Udo Heider OLED chief at Merck
A senior executive at Merck, a leader in performance materials, said he was confident that Samsung Electronics will enter the OLED TV business because costs of key raw materials have been falling.
“Samsung is now focusing on small sizes in OLED and this is because small-sized displays maybe have a higher value at the moment,” said Udo Heider, head of its OLED business division, during an interview, Monday.
He said that Samsung will also start producing larger OLED displays. “I’m pretty confident that Samsung will also jump into that market at some point. With the learning they have from the small size, they may also have some benefits for the large size,” he said.
Global TV manufacturers including LG Electronics, Sony and Japan's Panasonic are bullish about OLED TV demand. Samsung Electronics, unsure of the technology is pushing to grow its LCD technology using quantum dot materials for mass production.
LG’s 65-inch OLED TV (65EG9600) retails for 12 million won ($10,924). For the same money, a customer can get an 85-inch set with the other technologies.
The Merck executive said costs, productivity and production yield (defect rates) are the main topics that OLED producers should address.
He said its printing technology could be an interesting alternative, helping them cut costs.
“In the vapor base as well as new technologies, specifically, if you go to very large displays, we believe our printing method could be a good option. We started many years ago with the idea about how to print OLED displays,” Heider responded.
Mentioning its collaboration of Japan's printing company Epson, the executive said this decision was aimed at boosting its presence in materials.
As Merck has expertise in materials, Heider said, it needed somebody with expertise in printing to make sure that the whole industry will go.
He said its acquisition of AZ Electric Materials was also part of corporate strategy to strengthen its competitiveness in printing OLED technology.
The executive said its printing OLED technology is waiting for the timing of mass production. “Now is an interesting time to see whether that can really be brought to any type of mass production technology,” Heider said.
OLED TVs are as thin as 4 millimeters (0.16-inches) and produce sharper images than current liquid-crystal-display models. Shipments of OLED TVs may grow to 2.1 million sets in 2015 from 34,000 in 2012, according to iSuppli, a research firm.
Partnership with LG Display
Heider said that Merck maintains a partnership with LG Display as the world's biggest display panel producer will boom up the large-sized OLED panel business with Japanese and Chinese TV producers.
“LG is now very strongly pushing for OLED TVs. We feel that LG is very committed to OLED technology. So are we. It’s fully in line with our strategy. We’ve been continuously investing in OLED since a long time ago, specifically, last year there was strong investment here in research as well as in production,” he said.
"Strong investment activities in Korea in the display industry, including OLED, are bringing many opportunities to the whole OLED environment, particularly to us.”
The executive picked the automotive sector as the right spot that OLED technology could effectively increase its influence.
“In the automotive field, OLED is a very nice technology. You could even imagine OLED is a type of merger between display and lighting. So you can do a different type of lighting in the car,” he said.
"You can use OLED on the one hand as a light source, and on the other hand as an information display. That’s the future trend in the car industry. So it makes a lot of sense to combine OLED with the car interior," Heider said.
He said Korea has advantages to grow the OLED lighting market and added that Merck can help local companies achieve shared growth.
“The lighting industry offers a lot of growth potential for OLED. I also believe that there will be a bigger opportunity in the lighting market. However, it will take time as the lighting market will be slower in adapting new technologies compared to display and electronics industries. That's why I believe LED and OLED will coexist in the market,” he said.
The executive said the German multinational chemical firm is interested in seeking additional acquisition chances after its top management was satisfied with the effects of its acquisition of AZ Electronic Materials.