Korean toolmakers win tenders at TCL CSOT's inkjet OLED fab, but not the printers
By our count, Korean-made tools won 25 of the fab's 139 international-tender equipment lots, second only to tools listed as Chinese-made.
Tools from four South Korean equipment makers won tenders for the Gen 8.6 inkjet-printed OLED fab that TCL CSOT (TCL华星) is building in Guangzhou, in southern China. The awards show where Korean toolmakers fit at the Chinese panel maker's new fab: around the printers, not in them.
Inkjet printing sprays the light-emitting organic material through nozzles, like a printer, instead of heating it in a vacuum to deposit it, ET News (전자신문) explained. The fab is being built to process 22,500 large glass sheets per month into panels for laptops and monitors, according to the paper. Equipment has begun moving in, Kuai Keji (快科技) reported, calling the fab the world's first Gen 8.6 printed-OLED line aimed at mass production. TCL CSOT aims to start mass production in the fourth quarter of 2027, both outlets said.
Hanwha Momentum (한화모멘텀), a Hanwha group maker of heat-treatment equipment, won a dryer, a Nov. 3 result notice shows. Static eliminators made by Sunje (선재하이테크), an ionizer maker in Busan, won a lot entered by a separate bidder. Nanotech Inc. (나노테크) won an etch endpoint detector. Seyang Electronics (세양전자), a display and chip equipment maker in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, won a mask cleaner in October.
By our count of the 139 equipment award notices for the fab's first phase, tools from makers listed as Korean won 25 lots, against 19 for Japan, 81 for China and 14 for makers in Singapore, Taiwan, the US and Germany. The Korean lots went to 17 makers. The count covers international-tender lots, not their value: the notices print no prices.
The core tools went mostly elsewhere. Japan's Canon and Panasonic made the printers that won both inkjet-printer lots. Korea's YAS won the evaporator lot. A Singapore unit of Applied Materials won both plasma deposition lots, while Tokyo Electron and Korea's ICD each won a dry-etch lot.
Korean toolmakers see TCL CSOT's orders as a chance to defend their business while the display market stays quiet, ET News reported. The paper said Counterpoint Research expects global display-equipment spending to fall 49% in 2027 from 2026. Research firm TrendForce still expects OLED laptop shipments to rise more than 40% in 2027, even as it expects the overall laptop market to shrink.
Editor: Ian Lamont
