(Yicai Global) Dec. 10 -- China will be the world's largest producer of organic light-emitting diodes, which are used to make digital displays in computers, smartphones and other devices, in three years’ time, accounting for between 50 percent and 60 percent of global output, according to an industry analyst.

China will overtake South Korea as the biggest OLED manufacturer by 2024 as Chinese companies invest heavily in new production lines, Zhou Hua, chief analyst at Chinese flat panel display consultancy firm CINNO Research, told Yicai Global today.

BOE Technology Group is reportedly going to triple its iPhone display sales to US tech giant Apple next year. The Beijing-based company could provide Apple with as many as 50 million OLED panels in 2022, 20 percent of which will be for the iPhone, Zhou said.

BOE is the top flexible OLED display maker in China and second in the world after South Korea’s Samsung Group, according to Chinese market research firm Sigmaintell Consulting. In the first three quarters, BOE’s sales were up 65 percent from the same period last year to 40 million units.

As output increases, so does demand for raw materials. Orders for photoresist, which helps to form a patterned coating on a surface, is likely to jump 16 percent this year from last year to 48,000 tons, and could grow by another 20 percent by 2025, according to Shanghai-based CINNO Research.

Editor: Kim Taylor