To ensure its dominant position in the display industry, South Korea’s top display maker LG Display said it will seek debt if necessary to finance its 15 trillion won ($13.5 billion) spending to ramp up capacity and advance organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

“The investment would be basically made with our profits. But if we are short, we will find other ways to raise the money as timing is crucial in making investment,” said Kim Sang-don, chief financial officer and senior vice president of LG Display in a conference call after release of second-quarter income.

LG Display reported an operating income of 804.3 billion won in the second quarter, up a whopping 1,712 percent on year. Sales reached 6.6 trillion won, up 13 percent from a year earlier.

While releasing the second-quarter figures, the company pledged 15 trillion won investment over the next three years in production facility for OLED panels for not only TVs but small mobile devices, of which 7.8 trillion won would go to OLED production facilities located in Paju in Gyeonggi Province, 2.8 trillion won to add 10.5-generation OLED lines for large TV panels and another 5 trillion won to build 6-generation plastic OLED (POLED) lines for small- and mid-sized screens.

“We are making a preemptive move with belief in future growth. We are also pursuing investment jointly with the Guangzhou government,” he said.

He denied that investment in 10.5-generation OLED TV production lines would end up expanding LCD capacity.

But he admitted that if “there is market need, we could use some of the lines for LCDs.”

He brushed aside concerns about technology leak in the process of building an 8.5-generation OLED plant in Guangzhou, China, in a joint-venture structure, near its LCD manufacturing facility.

“OLED is very sophisticated technology. It cannot be easily copied,” he said.

“We already have LCD facility in China. Having an OLED base in China could give more opportunities for Korean parts suppliers instead of benefiting Chinese companies,” he said.

By Lee Dong-in

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