Samsung Electronics Co. vice chairman Kwon Oh-hyun met with Li Dongsheng, chairman of Chinese appliance giant TCL Corp. in Seoul on Wednesday. Kwon, who co-heads Samsung Display Co. held a lunch meeting with Li and other TCL executives to discuss mutual cooperation on display business at Samsung’s headquarters in Seocheo, southern Seoul.

TCL Group has China Star Optoelectronics (CSOT), a display panel subsidiary. TCL is the largest TV maker in China and the third largest in the world in terms of sales. CSOT recently started construction of the world’s largest 11th generation liquid crystal display panel (LCD) production line in Shenzhen, China. Commercial production is scheduled to begin in 2018.

Industry watchers speculated that the two companies might have discussed potential sale of Samsung Display’s 7th generation line to produce 40-inch LCD panels to TCL. Samsung which has been shifting panel focus to organic light emitting diode (OLED) from money-losing LCD plans to suspend the line’s operation within this year. Others speculated that Samsung Electronics could receive large-scale panel supplies from the Chinese company after it dissolves some of its LCD operation.

By Song Sung-hoon

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