Shipments of organic light-emitting materials used to produce organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays grew 12 percent year over year in 2015, reaching 26,000 tons. With the rapid growth of white OLED (WOLED) TV display shipments, shipments of organic light-emitting materials are expected to reach 100,000 tons in 2018, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight. Revenues from organic materials used to produce OLED displays also grew 12 percent year over year, reaching $465 million in 2015. Revenue is expected to amount to $1.8 billion in 2018.

“The market for small and medium OLED displays is stable, and OLED TV shipments are increasing, which is supporting OLED light-emitting materials market growth,” said Kihyun Kim, senior analyst for chemical materials research at IHS Technology.  “Shipments of organic light-emitting materials for WOLED are expected to increase along with WOLED TV shipments, as more manufacturers are planning to adopt the technology. WOLED materials are expected to outstrip fine-metal-mask red-green-blue (FMM RGB) materials in 2017 for the first time.”

Organic light-emitting materials used in the FMM RGB technology, mostly used to produce smartphone displays, dominated the OLED materials market in 2015, with an 82 percent share. WOLED materials, mainly used for TVs, will account for 51 percent of the total OLED materials market in 2017 and 55 percent in 2018, in terms of shipments.

Revenue from WOLED materials, which made up 31 percent of the market in 2015, will account for 55 percent of the total organic light-emitting materials used to produce OLED displays in 2016. The growth in revenue is faster than that in shipments, because WOLED materials are more expensive than FMM RGB materials, because they haven’t yet reached an economy of scale.