Samsung Display is planning to pull the plug on its liquid-crystal display business, which has been reeling from Chinese manufacturers’ low-priced large-volume cargo, according to industry sources Tuesday.

The display unit of Samsung Group will reportedly close its seventh-generation and eighth-generation LCD manufacturing lines in South Korea and Xuzhou, China, in the first half of 2021.

Currently, it manufactures 165,000 seventh-generation and 363,000 eighth-generation displays per month, and is responsible for 14 percent of the world’s LCD output.

Industry insiders, however, could not confirm the move, as Samsung Display has been shifting balance from LCD to quantum-dot display panels.

The company had announced in October 2019 that it would invest 13 trillion won ($10.6 billion) into QD displays in the next five-year period. It had withdrawn its large-size LCD manufacturing line from the plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, to make room for QD display production.

Alongside QD displays, Samsung Display is also focusing on small and medium-sized organic light-emitting diode screens and next-generation QD nano light-emitting diode screens.

Samsung Electronics, which had been using the LCD panels, will likely forge new deals with Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers, according to industry insiders.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)