Hanul Materials Science: "JKM Succeeds in Localizing Film Materials for OLEDs"

Hanul Materials Science announced on September 22 that its subsidiary, JK Materials (JKM), in which it has invested approximately 60 billion won in cash, has successfully secured its first order and generated sales for film materials used in flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels.

This material is a key component for improving and managing production yield in the manufacturing of OLED panels for smartphones such as the Apple iPhone. Due to its demanding specifications and the difficulty of mass production, a Japanese materials company has so far maintained a monopoly, supplying this material at very high prices to global panel manufacturers in countries including South Korea and China. The material developed and supplied by JKM meets the performance requirements of its clients while offering overwhelming price competitiveness compared to existing products.

Although the global OLED panel market is led by panel manufacturers in South Korea and China, the core film material that JKM has just secured its first order for is still monopolized worldwide by a Japanese supplier. As a result, there have been limitations in negotiating material prices and demanding performance improvements, while tariff burdens in the global supply chain have contributed to increased manufacturing costs.

With the application of JKM's newly developed film material for OLED processing to the production lines of a major Chinese panel manufacturer, referred to as Company B, cost competitiveness is expected to improve significantly, and the unit manufacturing cost of panels is also projected to decrease. The company explained that this will be an important factor for panel makers in maintaining price competitiveness in the global market.

In particular, global smartphone manufacturers such as Apple also use OLED panels produced in China and South Korea, so cost reduction effects are anticipated. This is expected to help alleviate consumer price pressures resulting from increased U.S. tariffs. JKM’s strategy of diversifying and localizing the supply of core global materials is expected to have a positive impact not only on the export price competitiveness of Korean panel makers to the U.S. in the future, but also on the stability of the global OLED market supply chain and its price structure.

A company representative stated, “As interest in JKM’s materials from major OLED customers is rapidly growing, we plan to apply them to the production lines of Company B, a leading large Chinese firm that supplies panels to the world’s top two smartphone manufacturers. Amid the strengthening of U.S. tariff barriers against China, Chinese companies are increasingly adopting materials from third countries such as South Korea, aiming to achieve both performance and price competitiveness.”

The representative added, “Once the application of our materials to Company B’s large-scale production lines is in full swing, we expect a surge in global demand and a dramatic increase in sales of this material-beyond what the materials industry has ever imagined.”

JKM is currently constructing a semiconductor and electronic synthetic materials plant comprising eight buildings on a land area of approximately 18,200 square meters at the Jeonui Industrial Complex in Sejong, with the goal of obtaining approval for use by December this year. While current sales are generated through outsourced processing as part of research and development, once the plant is completed as planned, direct production is expected to maximize both sales and profits.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.