OLED Emitting Material Purchases Up 6.2% in Q3 This Year... Driven by Apple Demand

UBI Research "OLED Emitting Material Market" Report
$521 Million, Up from Previous Quarter
Small-Sized OLED Shipments Rise on iPhone 17 Panel Orders

Display market research firm UBI Research announced on November 25 that, according to its recently published "OLED Emitting Material Market Tracker" report, global purchases of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) emitting materials by panel manufacturers in the third quarter of this year reached $521 million, up 6.2% from the previous quarter. The company explained that this increase was driven by higher purchase volumes across most applications, including smartphones, laptops, tablet PCs, and monitors.

On September 19, the official release date of Apple's new iPhone 17 series, citizens were seen checking out the products at the Apple Myeongdong Store in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

By panel manufacturer, all companies except China's CSOT saw an increase in purchase amounts. For Korean manufacturers, shipments of small-sized OLED panels rose significantly in the third quarter of this year as shipments for the iPhone 17 series began in earnest. OLED shipments for tablet PCs, which had been sluggish in the second quarter, showed signs of recovery as panel supplies for new iPad Pro models increased.

UBI Research also projected that global purchases of emitting materials will rise from $2.93 billion this year to $3.47 billion by 2029.

In particular, the company expects the medium- and large-sized OLED market to grow more rapidly than the small-sized OLED market. This is due to Apple expanding the use of tandem OLEDs in major IT product lines such as the iPad Pro and MacBook, which is significantly boosting demand. The report also analyzed that the increased adoption of OLEDs in the automotive display market, which requires high brightness and durability, could have an impact. Furthermore, as both IT and automotive OLED markets grow simultaneously, demand for tandem structures with high reliability and high brightness characteristics is expected to increase.

UBI Research analyzed that while the market share of RGB single-stack OLEDs, currently the most widely used in the market, will decrease by about 10% by 2029, purchases of emitting materials for RGB two-stack tandem OLEDs will show rapid growth.

No Changho, an analyst at UBI Research, stated, "After 2026, as mass production of 8.6-generation RGB two-stack tandem OLED lines begins in earnest, led by Samsung Display, BOE, and Visionox, the consumption of related emitting materials will increase rapidly."

However, he also projected that "as Chinese emitting material manufacturers expand the supply of low-cost materials to domestic panel makers, the actual growth rate of emitting material purchases will not fully keep pace with the increase in consumption."

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