(Yicai Global) March 15 -- China's Fangxing Optoelectronic New Material Technology, which makes materials for flexible displays, plans to invest CNY76.2 million (USD11.3 million) to build a new production line and start making screens of its own.

The new line, which will extend an existing factory in Bengbu, Anhui province, will provide key components for a growing range of flexible organic light-emitting diode products, Fangxing's parent Triumph Technology said in a statement yesterday. Construction will take about two years, after which the plant will be making 30 million indium tin oxide displays a year for smartphones and tablets, the statement added.

Fangxing's current capacity is insufficient and the firm occupies only a small market share. It makes about 800,000 square meters of indium tin oxide -- the material used in folding touchscreens -- each year, Triumph said, adding that the new facility will allow Fangxing to branch out downstream and expand its product range to actual screens rather than just materials.

Flexible touchscreens are all the rage right now, and leading smartphone makers Samsung and Huawei have already unveiled folding handsets that utilize the technology. Huawei's foldable Mate X, which this week became the first 5G smartphone to get CE certification, will retail for as much as EUR2,229 (USD2,600) -- its most expensive yet, the firm said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month.

As the production line will be integrated into an existing plant, most of the money will go toward production equipment and supporting facilities, Triumph added.

Editor: James Boynton