New display factories once drove the equipment market for flat panel displays to a $21B peak in 2017. Those days are over, and a new research report from Omdia shows where the spending has gone instead.
Incremental purchases at existing LCD and OLED plants, for replacement gear, productivity gains and process improvements, will account for nearly 40% of all FPD equipment spending in 2027. That is a record share, up from 12% in 2024.
The industry built more capacity than it needed during the pandemic super cycle, and new construction has slowed to a crawl. Average annual equipment spending has settled near $8B, leaving suppliers to chase upgrades of the aging installed base.
The exception to the construction lull is Gen 8.6 OLED, the next-generation lines aimed at laptop and monitor panels, most of them in China. Operators building those plants are also modernizing their current high-end OLED fabs, and larger average TV sizes plus Taiwanese output ramps keep LCD area demand growing, Omdia says.
The firm expects replacement and enhancement spending to stay the industry’s dominant equipment revenue source through 2027.
