SCHEM Completes OLED Recycling Purification Facility Investment..."Sales Expected to Be Fully Reflected from Q2"

SCHEM, a company specializing in OLED synthesis and purification technology, has completed the upgrade of its recycling purification production facility and is accelerating the expansion of its related business. The company announced on June 1 that it expects recycling purification sales to be fully reflected in its performance starting from the second quarter of this year.

To strengthen its OLED recycling purification business, SCHEM announced plans in June of last year via a Korea Exchange (KIND) disclosure to invest approximately 4 billion won in upgrading its existing plant. By the end of May this year, the company completed all investments and construction for recycling purification equipment, establishing a full-scale mass production system.

The recycling purification business involves recovering organic materials used in the OLED manufacturing process and refining them through reprocessing so they can be reused. With increasing importance placed on resource circulation and ESG management, the related market is also showing high growth potential.

The OLED materials industry is structured such that the higher the level of process sophistication, the greater the added value. In particular, finished products have higher profitability than intermediates, and sublimated purified products are even more profitable than finished products. As such, SCHEM has continued to invest in sublimation purification facilities to expand its high value-added materials business.

The company is expanding the proportion of recycling purification and sublimation purification within its existing synthesis-focused business structure, pursuing both profitability improvement and business structure advancement at the same time.

Performance is also showing signs of recovery. In the first quarter of this year, SCHEM achieved sales of 6.7 billion won and operating profit of 300 million won, turning a profit. By contrast, the company posted sales of 22.1 billion won and an operating loss of 2 billion won last year, reflecting a period of weak performance.

Last year's poor results were largely due to changes in the existing supply structure during the restructuring of supply chains by domestic global display companies. The company has been transitioning from a structure centered on secondary suppliers to a direct supply system for global display companies. During this process, there was a temporary sales gap and adjustments in profitability.

However, since most of the supply chain restructuring was completed last year, the company expects the effects of direct supply system stabilization to become fully evident from this year. The company anticipates that faster response to customers and improved supply efficiency will enable it to secure a stable sales base and profitability.

Efforts to strengthen quality competitiveness are also underway. SCHEM introduced OLED material quality evaluation equipment in July last year and, after test operations and performance verification, completed the final setup this year. Through this, the company has established a system to independently evaluate the core performance of OLED materials prior to customer delivery.

The company explained that, based on these enhanced capabilities, it is advancing its business structure from a company focused on OLED intermediate synthesis to a 'total solution' provider capable of purification and quality evaluation as well.

Furthermore, leveraging its accumulated high-purity synthesis and purification technology from the OLED materials business, SCHEM is expanding into new advanced materials segments, including semiconductor materials, aerospace, and white bio (cosmetics).

SCHEM plans to secure a solid foundation for growth from the second quarter of this year onward by ▲ fully operating its recycling purification line, ▲ stabilizing the direct supply system, ▲ strengthening its quality evaluation capabilities, and ▲ expanding into new businesses such as semiconductor materials, aerospace, and white bio.

A company official stated, "2025 was a period when adjustments from the restructuring of domestic global display company supply chains were reflected," and added, "In 2026, we plan to pursue sales recovery and improvement in operating profit, based on the benefits of supply chain integration and the stabilization of the direct supply system." The official continued, "We will continue to strengthen competitiveness in the existing OLED materials business while securing mid- to long-term growth drivers by expanding into new advanced materials fields."

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