In October, Chi Mei EL (CMEL), a subsidiary of Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), announced that the company would invest NT$1 billion (US$30.6 million) to expand to a second OLED production line. Volume production is slated for 2008. CMO president Chao-Yang Ho explained that the company would continue to invest in OLEDs because of breakthroughs in OLED material technology and that orders and demand for small- to medium-size OLED products are good.

CMEL volume produces 2.4- and 2.8-inch active-matrix (AM) OLED panels and expects a 4.3-inch OLED panel and a 7.6-inch panel will be available in the first and second quarter of 2008, respectively. The Taiwan player will also introduce 11- and 12-inch panel production and expects to offer 32-inch AM OLED panels during 2010.

Several Taiwan-based OLED suppliers decided to phase out of the market due to strong competition from TFT LCD technology last year. Although RiTdisplay and Univision Technology, two Taiwan-based OLED panel makers, had more than 10% of the global OLED panel market in 2006, they are facing serious losses. Opto Tech closed down its OLED business earlier in 2007 and during the middle of 2006, AU Optronics (AUO) was reportedly to give up on OLED. During FPD International 2007 in October, HB Chen, vice chairman of AUO said the company has no plan to continue investing in the OLED panel market in the short term.

RiTdisplay seems to have improved its performance this year. According to a survey from DisplaySearch, RiTdisplay had a record quarter with revenues of US$31 million and shipments of 6.4 million units in the third quarter of 2007 in the worldwide OLED market.

source digitimes.com