LG Display to close LCD TV panel business for domestic use in Korea

LG Display Co., South Korea’s major display maker, is set to pull out of the liquid crystal display (LCD) TV panel business for domestic use.

“We’ll close the LCD TV panel business for local use in Korea by the end of 2023 at the latest,” said LG Display Chief Financial Officer Kim Sung-hyun during the second-quarter earnings call on July 27.

For domestic use, LG Display will produce 60,000 units of LCD TV panels in the second half of this year and 30,000 units in the first half of 2023 -- far fewer than the 150,000 units made during the first half of 2022.

The company’s decision came as China churns out such panels in large quantities at highly competitive prices. For the same reason, Samsung Display, LG Display’s rival, has announced it is pulling out of the LCD business by the end of 2022.

LG Display posted 5.6 trillion won in sales during the second quarter, down 19.5% from the same quarter of 2021. It swung to an operating loss of 488.3 billion in the quarter, due to nosediving display panel shipments during China’s COVID-19 lockdown.

The display maker will reduce LCD TV panel production from its China-based plant in slower phases as LCDs still account for 90% of the plant's display production. The plant will reduce the LCD production for TV use and increase it for information tech device use, LG Display said.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.