LG has announced that it is investing around 1.05 trillion Won ($900 million) to open an OLED production plant in South Korea. LG says that this new plant, when operating at full capacity, would enable LG to double its OLED display production.
This plant is more focused on utilising the bendable properties of LG's OLEDs to create curved and foldable displays, since such displays are in demand, particularly in the wearables industry, where products like the Zenwatch, the Gear Fit and more use curved OLED displays. Future wearables are expected to sport curved displays, and since OLED is power-efficient, it can help in improving the dismal battery life of current wearables.
Even smartphone manufacturers are switching to OLED due to its power-efficiency properties, and are leaving good old LCD behind. This means that the demand for OLED is going up across all categories, and since LG and Samsung are the only two manufacturers capable of producing OLEDs on a large scale, LG is hoping to get the lead on Samsung with this manufacturing plant.
LG says that the factory would start producing small and midsize OLEDs by 2017, and then would increase production capacity monthly till the plant reaches full capacity.