LG Display said Thursday it would make a fresh investment of 1.05 trillion won ($900 million) into the production of sixth-generation flexible OLED panels at its plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.

The company said it aims to produce 7,500 units of the futuristic display per month from 2017. By producing larger panel sheets, the company hopes to more than quadruple the plant’s production efficiency.

LG Display, the world’s largest display-maker by sales, has invested more than 14 trillion won into the Gumi plant since 1995.

The fresh investment into flexible OLED is expected to pave the way for the company to lead future markets for foldable display and its adoption on smartphones, wearable devices and automotive displays.

In 2013, LG Display, together with LG Electronics, launched the world’s first 55-inch OLED TV. In the same year, the company also started producing a 6-inch plastic flexible OLED for smartphones for the first time globally.

In 2014, the company also became the first to mass-produce the world’s first 1.3-inch circular flexible OLED.

According to research firms DisplaySearch, the market for flexible OLED is estimated to increase from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion by 2021.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, LG Display posted second-quarter earnings of 6.7 trillion won, up 12 percent from the same period last year. Its operating profits almost tripled to 488.1 billion won compared to 163.1 billion won a year ago.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)