LG Display, the world's largest display panel provider, will invest 1.84 trillion won ($1.6 billion) building a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The company said Friday it expects to pour more than 10 trillion won into the facility -- P10 -- which will make next-generation products such as large and flexible OLED and transparent display panels.
"LG Display's investment in P10 will be a historic move for Korea to lead the market in the OLED sector," LG Display Chief Executive Han Sang-beom said. "As the government also promised support in building related industrial infrastructure following the construction of P10, we pledge to make this the world's OLED industry hub."
LG Display said it will start building P10 this year and plans to operate it in the first half of 2018. The new plant will be 1.5 times larger than the P9 factory and also taller than 100 meters, the company said.
The P10 will be dedicated to making ninth-generation or higher extra-large OLED panels and flexible OLED products. LG Display's white OLED technology, or WRGB, which enables production of larger OLED panels, will be used here, giving the company the capability to produce diverse OLED products for mobile devices and larger products.
The company also expects the plant will generate production worth more than 100 trillion won, create over 350,000 jobs and contribute to the expansion of parts and materials subcontractors here.
LG Display said the global OLED market will rapidly grow, starting from the television and digital sign sector in Korea, China and Japan. It quoted data from international market research agency HIS that the size of the global OLED market, which was $8.7 billion in 2014, will grow to $29.1 billion by 2022.
LG Display said government support for the plant included securing industrial electricity, water supply and wastewater disposal facilities. The government, Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power will organize a task force to support the P10.
In July, the government picked OLED panels as the next-generation export item. It has cut tariffs for OLED manufacturing equipment and scrapped the individual consumption tax for OLED TVs.