LG Display Co., South Korea’s top display manufacturer, has opened an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) module factory in Vietnam, the company’s first manufacturing site in the Southeast Asian country that will mainly produce OLED panels for major Chinese TV and smartphone makers.

The company on Monday (local time) held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of an OLED module manufacturing factory in an industrial park in Hai Phong, located about 90 kilometers southeast of Hanoi, the company said. An unnamed official from LG Display said the company chose Hai Phong as its first Vietnam manufacturing site because its major customers are clustered around northern Vietnam, in particular, in Hai Phong, where it is easy for the company to access to China by sea and land. A majority of panels to be manufactured at the new Vietnam factory would be shipped to major Chinese TV and smartphone producers, the company said.

LG Display also vowed to invest an additional 1 trillion won ($920 million) or more in its module factory in Vietnam by 2020 and expand local workforce from the current 5,000 to 20,000 employees.

LG Group companies have recently increased their investments in the Hai Phong region, building factories dedicated to producing high technology components such as OLED panels and smartphone-use camera modules and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system.

LG Chem Ltd., the conglomerate’s leading battery maker, has already began operation of its polarizer plant in another industrial park in Hai Phong, and LG Electronics Inc. also has been manufacturing major home appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and air conditioners at its Hai Phong factory. The electronics giant plans to invest an additional $1.5 billion in the facility by 2028 to ramp up output.

A series of investment by LG Group companies has turned Hai Phong into a cutting-edge information and communications technology (ICT) hub in Vietnam.

By Lee Dong-in and Lee Eun-joo

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