Panasonic LCD Display Co., Ltd. (PLD) has decided to exit the LCD panel business in 2021. The production facility at its Himeji 8.5 OEM plant, with a capacity of 40,000 to 50,000 units a month, will be put up for auction.
Including about 1000 sets of equipment and instruments, the number of the subject matter is up to 9000 pieces. Including supporting Color Filter (Color Filter) production equipment, small and medium-sized panel assembly equipment, module packaging equipment, including analysis/evaluation equipment, as well as clean room and other general equipment.
As the core brand of Japanese manufacturing, Panasonic was once a leader in the display industry alongside century-old companies such as Sony, Toshiba and Sharp. However, with the continuous upgrading of the industry, large-size panels and ultra-high definition have become the mainstream, and new technologies such as OLED and MicroLED are rising rapidly in the Chinese and South Korean markets. Panasonic is still slow in the display field, and its products are dominated by LCD. At present, the competition for LCD is very fierce and the profit margin is getting smaller, which makes Panasonic feel more pressure in this market environment. The announcement of the complete withdrawal from the LCD industry, is another "big withdrawal" after the announcement of production of LCD TV in 2016, and the reason for the withdrawal, according to the official statement of Panasonic is "based on fierce competition and changes in the environment", "had planned to invest in the development of new products, but ultimately believe that it is very difficult to continue to implement".
Why do Japanese display companies quit the LCD industry? Liu dun, senior information division of saidi consultant, pointed out to the reporter of China electronic news that the main reason was that Japanese liquid crystal products had been unable to keep up with the pace of industrial development. The development direction of liquid crystal is large size ultra-high definition, and the small and medium size panel is basically saturated. The majority of Japanese LCD manufacturers are low generation lines, producing screens in small and medium sizes. In addition, with the continuous development of sophisticated display technology, the permeability of OLED is gradually increasing, and the erosion of LCD is also great, which further squeezes its living space. As a result, LCD sales overall have declined since last year. Among them, Japan's LCD panel industry has been most affected, while South Korea is actively developing OLED panel or MicroLED display technology to avoid the impact of China's LCD panel. By contrast, South Korea surpasses Japan in terms of technology, market share, sales revenue and net profit.
Dripped by the investment of panel, the scale of China's new display industry keeps rising and has become an important force in the global display industry. Data from CCID think tank shows that in 2018, the total revenue of China's new display industry was about 355.3 billion yuan, of which the display panel revenue was 267.7 billion yuan, accounting for 27.4% of the global total. Relying on a number of TFT-LCD panel production lines into full production, the Chinese mainland LCD panel revenue and shipping area are ranked first in the world. According to the China Optical and Optoelectronics Industry Association LCD Branch statistics show that in the first half of 2019 in the global scope of the Chinese mainland panel shipments accounted for 44.4%.
It can be said that in terms of size, Japan has been strongly suppressed by China and South Korea, and has lost its advantage. In terms of new technology research and development, Japan has not mastered the next generation technology, such as Micro LED, OLED, etc. Japan's display industry has been comprehensively backward, lost the future, exit is the natural choice.
