The US laser giant coherent company announced that it expects overall performance to decline in the next fiscal year; at the same time, it is hoped that major users in the OLED display field will be able to improve and speed up the production process.
Currently Samsung dominates the OLED business. The excimer laser pointers produced by related companies are widely used in various fields. Coherent company chief to related John Ambroseo said that the industry's overall demand for OLED is no problem. Samsung's competitors are still struggling to master other production steps, and then they will invest heavily in laser production equipment.
For coherence, this also means that the demand for its excimer laser system will continue until next year. Ambroseo said in a few days ago: "For OLED revenue, the current fiscal year 2016 has reached its peak, and it is likely to fall 15-20% in FY 2019, and then will recover in 2020."
In FY 2019 (starting October 1, 2018), the company's sales should be 5% of the total in FY 2018. Based on current estimates, the sales should be slightly above $1.9 billion. In the most recent quarter, the company's net income was $87.3 million, and sales were $482 million, a year-on-year increase of around 5%.
Only when the emerging OLED display manufacturers have developed the laser pointer production process, the relevant companies can achieve the expected profit scale. Ambroseo pointed out that more than 20 OLED factories will be put into production from now until 2023; in addition, mobile phone displays will continue to dominate in 2021.
For coherent companies, the company's diverse laser equipment should be able to compensate for the expected decline in sales of OLED-related equipment; while the company's revenue in other applications, including fiber laser pointers and related material processing component applications, has grown.
Ambroseo said: "The company will continue to penetrate the material processing market, which is one of the motives behind the Rofin-Sinar acquisition. The two main opportunities at present are fiber lasers and components for cutting and soldering applications, as well as for electronics, Laser pointer tool for automotive and medical device manufacturing."
Of the estimated $1.9 billion in revenue for the fiscal year, approximately $250 million in revenue was directly derived from fiber lasers and related component products. This figure is expected to increase by more than 20% next year, offsetting the expected decline in the flat panel display sector.
For coherent companies, key areas of good performance include the field of electric vehicle batteries, which are said to have achieved double-digit growth in sales and orders.
In addition to the OLED field, Ambroseo said that in the emerging 5G wireless network infrastructure, its solid-state UV laser pointer and ultra-fast lasers have unlimited opportunities in the future. This trend will be highlighted in the next two to three years, when higher frequency requirements will require more advanced technology to process more PCB layers, as well as thinner copper and glass substrates.
As for other more valuable applications, Ambroseo pointed out that demand from bio-instrumentation, especially for flow cytometry and DNA sequencing applications, as well as aerospace and defense customers, is quite strong. He said: "Aerospace and defense orders have doubled in the past year. The defense spending of the directional energy program has achieved considerable growth, and the company has already received certain orders."
In the last quarter of FY 2018, Ambroseo and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Palatnik expect sales to be between $465 million and $485 million. If the forecast is accurate, total sales in FY18 will reach $1.92 billion, up from $1.72 billion in FY2017.